Strong international collaboration continues

Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt opened the symposium by welcoming the delegation from Hallym University and emphasised that “a day with friends is never long enough”.

“Collaboration is always important. There are solitary geniuses, but everyone needs a context and environment in which to truly flourish,” said Anders Hagfeldt, highlighting the strong and important collaboration with Hallym University that has been ongoing since 2008.

This year’s symposium carried the theme “Perspectives on Ageing: Challenges, Innovations and Opportunities”. The programme offered a full day of lectures on topics such as new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, biomarkers for neurodegeneration, immunity in Parkinson’s disease, strategies for healthy ageing – and much more.

“The symposium on different perspectives on ageing was highly interesting and shed light on ageing research from many angles. I learnt a great deal,” said Eva Tiensuu Janson, Deputy Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Groundbreaking medicine from Uppsala

Among the speakers was Professor Dag Sehlin from the Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, who gave an overview of the first year of Lecanemab as an approved medicine. Lecanemab is the result of research at Uppsala University.
“It started with approval in the United States and has since been authorised in several other countries, most recently in Europe. The next step is to improve distribution and uptake of the medicine in the brain,” he explained.

Many other inspiring lectures followed from researchers at both Uppsala University and Hallym University, including presentations on Parkinson’s disease, artificial intelligence, and whether the process of ageing can be slowed down.

Opportunities for deeper collaboration

The collaboration between Uppsala University and Hallym University, with its annual conferences, is becoming a strong and long-standing tradition. This year’s symposium was the 14th in the series, and Eva Tiensuu Janson expressed both confidence and hope for even further development of the partnership in the coming years.

“We have strong research in drug development, diagnostics, and the risk and lifestyle factors that influence the health of an ageing population. I saw several areas where researchers from Uppsala and Hallym could initiate collaborations,” she noted.

“Thanks to our annual conferences, strong collaboration has already developed in the field of antibiotic resistance, and there are ongoing discussions about establishing a new initiative in forensic science – something that fits very well with our forthcoming police education. I hope our continued collaboration will help foster many more new constellations of researchers, for example in AI, where Korea is highly advanced.”

Robin Widing