Challenges

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• AB Enzymes Finland Oy

  • Challenge number 1

    Cost-efficient troubleshooting of problems encountered in heterologous enzyme secretion

    Enzymes from different donor organisms are manufactured industrially using a wide variety of production hosts. This heterologous enzyme production can sometimes suffer from no/low yield and it can be challenging to elucidate the root cause for the low production due to inherent complexity of protein secretion. Comprehensive study of each step involved in the protein secretion requires expert knowledge and specialized equipment and would thus be both expensive and time-consuming for large number of enzymes and hosts.

    Develop a workflow for troubleshooting the failure to produce heterologous enzymes using following assumptions: 1) the enzyme is secreted to the growth medium, 2) the enzyme activity or origin is not specified, 3) the production host organism is not specified and can be either prokaryote or eukaryote, 4) any technologies can be used but they should preferably be as inexpensive as possible, 5) bioprocess related aspects can be ignored.

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• Modulight

  • Challenge number 2

    How to validate and optimize the effect of photoimmunotherapy (PDT/PIT) on anti-tumor immunity in treatment of brain cancer?

    What are most meaningful indicators of antitumor immune response and how could they be incorporated into preclinical and clinical studies to optimize the long-term tumor resistance.

    • Attachment
  • Challenge number 3

    Ways and benefits to combine electrical and optical measurements to study biological in-vitro models?

    How this could be used to study of therapy effects in organ-on-chip models, and what are most interesting applications.

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• Oy Medix Biochemica Ab

  • Challenge number 4

    Scalable Strategies for Efficient Transient Transfection of Mammalian Cells

    Efficient transient transfection of mammalian cells is a critical step in many areas of biotechnology and biopharmaceutical production, enabling rapid expression of recombinant proteins for research, therapeutic development, and screening applications. However, scaling these processes from small laboratory formats to larger volumes often presents challenges related to cost, reproducibility, and transfection efficiency. Variations in cell density, reagent performance, and culture conditions can significantly affect yield and consistency. Therefore, developing scalable strategies that maintain high transfection efficiency while reducing resource consumption is essential for advancing both research workflows and industrial applications.

  • Challenge number 5

    Novel biomarkers for the diagnosis, detection and/or monitoring Neurological disorder diseases

    Neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, represent a growing global health burden due to aging populations and limited curative treatments. Early diagnosis and accurate monitoring remain challenging, as many conditions are identified only after significant neurodegeneration has occurred. Current diagnostic tools often lack sensitivity, specificity, or accessibility, highlighting the need for novel biomarkers. Identifying reliable molecular, imaging, or digital biomarkers could enable earlier detection, improved disease stratification, and better monitoring of disease progression and treatment response.