What does the new position at Eli Lilly entail?
"At Eli Lilly, I am involved in leading the development of new drugs intended to slow down neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's and ALS. Specifically, I am responsible for the earlier phases of clinical studies, so-called phase 1 and phase 2 trials. I am also responsible for the development of new brain imaging techniques for these diseases.”
What attracted you to this position?
"Since my time at medical school in Lund 25-30 years ago, I have been driven by an inner calling to improve the life situation of people affected by serious brain diseases. We have made great progress in recent years in simplifying and improving the diagnosis of these diseases, including the development of an accurate blood test for Alzheimer's disease. I personally felt that it was now time to be involved in improving the treatment options for these diseases and not just diagnostics.”
Oskar Hansson mentions the great advances that have been made in the field of gene therapy recently, which he believes opens up enormous opportunities to test new treatment strategies for brain diseases.
”But this is difficult to do within the framework of academic research, but is most effectively done within the framework of the pharmaceutical industry. This was the main reason why I took on this assignment. The other is more personal, I wanted a new challenge in life where I am forced to learn a lot of new things in a short time and develop as a person in my professional role.”
How will this affect your research at LU?
"Unfortunately, I will have less time for my assignment at Lund University, which is now only part-time.”
How do you plan to balance your commitment between academia and the new position?
"We'll see how it will go in practice in the longer term. Right now it's going pretty well, but I have to be careful not to let it develop so that I suddenly find myself with two full-time jobs. However, we have restructured the work within our research group at Lund University so that some younger, very talented colleagues have taken over a lot of the management responsibility – which is also good for their personal development. However, I am still very active in selected research projects and mentoring.”
How can your new role strengthen the collaboration between academic research and industry applications?
"Personally, it is a great advantage that I get to continue working on improving the diagnosis of people with brain diseases within my role at Lund University. But it is also an advantage to be involved in developing drugs that can hopefully improve the quality of life for affected people in my role in the pharmaceutical industry.”