Netherlands Discuss on Regenerative Medicine at Bio
June 2016 – At the Bio 2016 conference in San Francisco, the Netherlands Govt was discussing the new focus of their life science research programs. Shifting away from standard genomic and stem cell research, which competes heavily with the US based and Silicon Valley based life sciences community, they have chosen to focus on regenerative medicine.
Dutch Life Science Parks 2016
This research is aimed at replacing palpative treatment of chronic illness with a regenerative cure model which will resolve the medical issue. The research is further being investigated to use the regenerative medicine techniques and the resulting tissues to form preventative cures prior to the onset of severe or lifestyle altering symptoms.
The marketplace for regenerative medicine is not just in organ replacement. There are 10 major areas of research including tools, methodologies and techniques for the creation of the replacement material and transfer to the patients.. These areas have received venture capital and institutional investment on the order of $6.3B globally and this is growing at 111% per year. In the Netherlands, the group has received about 250M Euro that is being dispensed to about 500 researches in this field. The funds are being distributed 50% to corporate R&D and 50% to academic instituions.
Like the direction in pharmaceuticals, the research is very data collection and HPC intensive to determine progress and interpret results. Unlike pharmaceuticals, this research requires a very close alignment and partnership with local academic hospitals. These relationships have been created and are in place in the Netherlands which are enabling this research on an accelerated basis. A key area of this research is developing the techniques and the solutions at scale to be used in on demand situations for public health.
This is ambitious new industry for the Dutch, it requires not only cooperation between different institutions and the government, but also across multiple disciplines. Data science, data analytics, sensor technology, public and privacy policies, all have to be developed in addition to the life sciences aspects of the development.
