iknys’s work in biomedical research in Lithuania has been recognized by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Life Science Center

I think the biotech and life-sciences community in Lithuania is special. A long-standing history in the life sciences and good infrastructure for computer science and the Internet are some of the things we have. Students going into these fields are more successful than others. They want to do their best and go and see the world the same way previous generations did. We are also a small country, it’s easy to get what you need, and the government is supportive. Now, for us as bioinformaticians, the task is to put all of this together.

A culture of collaboration, not one of competition, is what researchers point to as the reason for it. This is made easier by the country’s small size — it has a population of 2.8 million.

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory selected the Life Science Center to partner with in order to develop genome-editing technologies. The partnership is one of seven created around the world since 2019 — the collaborations typically last between five and nine years.

iknys got recognition for his work after six years after being rejected for the Kalvi Prize, but he was able to get together with two other scientists to win a piece of the $1-million prize.

Immigration and the return of nationals: Lithuania’s cultural immigration crisis since the arrival of Thermo in 2010, and a Nobel Prize for biochemistry and chemistry in Vilnius

Lithuania, however, has also faced an exodus of talent. The population decreased from 3.7 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2023. But this trend might be changing, owing to Lithuanians returning home from abroad and other nationals moving to the country. Since 2019, migration has exceeded emigration every year, with 87,367 people coming into the country in 2022, but only 15,270 leaving, according to the Lithuanian State Data Agency. Since 2017, the number of Lithuanians returning to their home country has risen steadily from 10,155 that year to 23,712 in 2021. It may have been due to the proximity of the war in Ukrainian.

45% of those 25-34 years old have received tertiary education, according to the organization Invest Lithuania. This is above the EU average as well as among the highest in EU countries. Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics made up 42% of all students who began their PhDs in 2021, according to data from the university.

Vladas Bumelis, a chemist and biotechnologist at Vilnius University, receives the Lithuanian Science Prize in recognition of his achievements in the development and production of recombinant proteins. The firm Northway was also found by him.

Thermo arrived in the country in 2010, when it acquired Lithuanian biotech company Fermentas for US$260 million. Its Vilnius site manufactures products for the life-science market, specifically molecular, protein and cellular-biology products. It also has a research and development centre.

The company discovers and develops CRISPR-based molecular tools for diverse applications. It has 17 scientists and is growing all the time. In January, we moved premises to a larger building opposite the Vilnius site of the firm Northway Biotech, and close to Vilnius University Hospital.

An advanced grant of 2.5 million was awarded to Saulius Klimaauskas for his research proposal on epigenetic change.

From data science to bioinformatics in Lithuania, from birth to retirement: A journey to work with a team of bioinformaticians

The life-science sector grew by 22% and the country is third in the central and eastern European region for attracting and retaining talent.

I was born nine years before Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. I was part of the generation that did not have compulsory Russian lessons at school. I obtained my PhD from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, in Italy, in 2004, the year thatLithuania joined the European Union. The news service worked out the most important events in a given time period, and the mathematics and algorithms that it used turned out to be very relevant in bioinformatics.

I was drinking beer with some other people in Toronto who were also fromLithuania. One of them was Arturas Petronis at the University of Toronto, who studies genetics. I said that I was into computer science but not interested in working for a company that did not do computer science. Instead, I wanted to do something that contributes to human health (my older brother and sister are both physicians). He said, try something, it is the future.

My first foray into health was in 2011, as a visiting postdoc working with Petronis at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Canada’s largest mental-health teaching hospital. I worked there as a data-science consultant and traveled between Canada and Lithuania for many years, until I was appointed as a researcher at the Vilnius University’s Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. I worked night and day.

In 2019, I joined the Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a bioinformatics scientist. I realized that the work of a bioinformatician is very limited in academia. Universities have lots of people who do the experiments and typically hire only one bioinformatician. You have to do all the work in the lab: run the server that do the computation, manage the data and write the code. Every project becomes very lengthy. It could be a year or more before a result is publishable. After a while, you feel lonely, it’s interesting in the beginning. I thought that if I had a team of people working with me, and I could optimize these processes, it would be much faster.

I needed a base in the US to get a contract for the institutes that I was working with. I certainly didn’t have to explain where Lithuania is — it was a gate opener.

By this time, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit and I had decided to return to Lithuania with my wife to build the company there. At first, I was doing everything alone.

My dream has always been to find a way to use something in medical practice. Early diagnostics is where Vugene is focused. The company works a lot in the neurodegeneration field, mostly sequencing epigenomic data sets. Currently, 30 projects are running in parallel.

The first hire was a big step. I am very lucky with the people who joined me. Milda Milčiūtė, then a third-year genetics student at Vilnius, came first, in 2021. I was in charge of her thesis while she was a student and we worked on it together. She did programs and built models for Vugene. She is doing her master’s while working here.

There are a lot of students working at a company. I have taken on four students, three undergraduates and one doing a PhD. This is in addition to two postdocs, and a chief executive and a designer.

Source: How bioinformatics led one scientist home to Lithuania

Working in the biotechnology field – from a biology student to a business-development manager role – an experience of working at Thermo

Outside work, life is good here — we have fast Internet, free education and good health care as standard. On top of that, many people have a strong desire to do good things. The country is changing very quickly and for the better, so it feels great to be here.

Sailing has always been very important to me, and it’s very popular in Lithuania. It’s a good antidote to my work. In a race, I have to concentrate and stay alert for an extended period of time under extreme physical stress — it takes 100% of my mental capacity, there’s no time for anything else.

When I was an undergraduate student at Vilnius University in Lithuania, I loved working in laboratories. During the Pandemic, I lost my motivation and it never came back.

I was helping senior product managers with requests from companies for different things, mainly for mRNA vaccine development and production. I carried on working at Thermo, during my master’s degree in molecular biotechnology, also at Vilnius University. Many people had masters or PhDs in business and administration.

It’s common for science students to work during their studies and for me it provided a chance to see what working in the biotech field was like, and to find out what options I had with a life-sciences degree, other than working in the laboratory.

I began work there after I completed my master’s degree, and applied for a business- development manager role. My job involves relationship building and representing the company abroad.

Caszyme: a c.m.c.e.d. firm for the development of new CRISPR-Cas nucleases

Caszyme currently focuses on three elements. The first is looking for new CRISPR–Cas nucleases for companies who want specific characteristics. The company has a nucleases platform that it has already identified and it is able to give licences for further development. There are three things, and they are analysis, expression, and purification of Cas nucleases.

The firm has several collaborations in diagnostics, infectious diseases, and agriculture.

There are a lot of aspects of Lithuania’s industry that are different from other countries. First, we have great universities that prepare scientists very well for the future. Scientists leave with a great deal of theoretical knowledge as well as experience in a lab.

The ecosystems is a small one. It’s very easy to get to know most people and that’s an advantage because it makes collaborations easier.

My proudest accomplishment is probably my personal growth. I can see the difference between now and when I started working, I have gained knowledge and experience, and matured as a person. I was promoted to head of business development in June of last year.

Source: I fell out of love with the lab, and in love with business

Research in Lithuania – a place to study business and finance in a country with culture: The Kaunas project as an example

I work remotely in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania, which has a beautiful old town and is known for its art deco architecture. We have three international airports and Vilnius is only an hour and a half by road, so it’s easy to get to the office when I need to. Some of my time is spent abroad — I’ve just come back from a technology summit in San Francisco, California, and now I’m in Rome.

I would like to work for another country on a part-time basis. Lithuania has lots of culture and is full of countryside. Every year, in March we have an international film festival, which I have worked for as a volunteer in the past.

If you find you don’t like working in a lab, like me, my advice would be to find a job outside the lab and see if it fits. Try something else, and talk to people with different positions in life sciences. Explore the opportunities.

Many of the people I talk to at events have PhDs or worked as postdocs and decided they don’t want to be scientists. There is nothing shameful about that. It’s essential that people with a scientific degree work in business development or operations.