"The Lund Spring Symposium offers just such inspiration”, says the organiser, Professor Lars Grundemar, who urges our researchers not to miss this unique opportunity.
The Lund Spring Symposium at the end of May aims to inspire researchers by listening to and discussing with international and local cutting-edge researchers. The symposium is aimed at researchers in all medical fields, e.g. the metabolic field to neuroscience and cancer, and aims to promote interdisciplinary learning and collaboration.
"The symposium deals with major achievements in modern drug development, everything from classical drugs (so-called small molecules) to the new areas; large molecules, RNA/DNA, and gene therapies, which in recent years have been used to make important drugs," explains the main Organiser and Chairman of the symposium, Lars Grundemar, Adjunct Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine.
Sharing knowledge and experience
"This is a unique opportunity for our researchers and entrepreneurs to come together and share knowledge and experiences. I think it is important to lift your gaze sometimes and be inspired by other research areas to enable groundbreaking efforts. And the symposium offers just such inspiration.”
"By applying techniques and tools from one area to another, researchers can discover new applications and opportunities. For example, the use of antisense technology, which was initially used in cancer research, but later proved to be very useful in other areas, such as neuroscience.”
Lars Grundemar's co-organisers are the Visiting Professors at the Faculty of Medicine, Mikael Dolsten (President R&D Pfizer) and Claes Wahlestedt (Professor at University of Miami). Lars himself has worked for many years to raise the profile of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology as a central discipline at the University, especially since drug treatment is fundamental to most medical interventions.
Impressive line-up
Among the invited speakers at the inaugural symposium 2023, three Nobel Laureates, other international and local research stars, successful entrepreneurs and leaders in research and development in global companies participated.
At the Lund Spring Symposium 2025 there is at least as impressive line-up, Lars Grundemar finds it difficult to highlight just a few speakers, but the following speakers have impressed greatly:
“Kevan Shokat, a prominent cancer researcher from UCSF, San Francisco, who has made groundbreaking discoveries in the development of new targets for cancer drugs. Feng Zhang, at MIT and Harvard, who has pioneered CRISPR technology and made significant discoveries in optogenetics. The symposium is a fantastic opportunity to listen to some of the world's most prominent researchers and entrepreneurs.”
Learning and networking
Despite the sold-out symposium in 2023, there were surprisingly few researchers attending from Lund University.
"And that's really unfortunate. So I hope that this year's symposium will attract more Lund researchers who will have the opportunity to be inspired by the symposium's unique opportunities for learning and networking.”
