Why we initiated the Medicon Valley Alliance Microbiome Network

Research and development about the role of the microbiome for human health is on the rise. From a European perspective the Medicon Valley region was a first mover, and, consequently, Medicon Valley Alliance and several member companies and stakeholders including the Technical University of Denmark, Lund University, University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk decided to both test the interest and advance the growing interest in microbiome science in Medicon Valley.

The result of these deliberations was the Medicon Valley Microbiome Summit organized in 2017, which covered, among other things topics such as, Microbiome & metabolic disease, Microbiome & CNS disorders, GI & oral microbiome, Microbiome, probiotics & nutrition.

The successful organization of the Microbiome Summit confirmed the interest among both Danish and Swedish companies and eventually paved the way for the kick-off of the first MVA Microbiome Network meeting the following year.

The ambition of the network and it´s two annual meetings, which are open to all MVA-member companies, is to focus on collaborative approaches for researchers from the industry, academia, and hospital sector as well as to showcase the highly competitive edge of the Medicon Valley region within this field. As such the MVA Microbiome network has since then organized meetings and facilitated discussion and knowledge-sharing with a long list of local and international key-opinion leaders within the R&D community and facilitated microbiome pitch session as a side event to Nordic Life Science Days. Moreover, MVA also initiated an EU-funded microbiome project together with Invest in Skåne and Copenhagen Capacity making a mapping and analysis of microbiome research both in academic and the industry in the region. The project showed that Medicon Valley is the largest microbiome research hub in Europe. Among the companies, which have contributed and participated are, apart from the founding fathers, companies such as Biogaia, Chr. Hansen, Novozymes, Enbiosis Biotechnology, SNIPR Biome, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Bachtera, Ilya Pharma, Clinical-Microbiomics A/S and several others. A special credit goes to Morten Sommer, Professor at DTU and Vice Chairman of the MVA Board, who was the first to see the potential in a joint Swedish-Danish Microbiome network.

If you want to know more about the MVA Microbiome Network and how to join MVA and benefit from full access to MVA network events, feel free to visit www.mva.org and/or reach out to me or my colleagues!

Anette Steenberg, CEO Medicon Valley Alliance, as@mva.org