Vilnius University – a case study in the origins of biomedical collaboration in Lithuania: Juozas Gordeviius, founder of the Vugene institute, and a Nobel Prize winner ikny

In May, Lithuania marks 20 years of European Union membership. The Baltic country wants to be a hub for life-science andbiopharmaceuticals, and it hopes to lure scientists from other countries to return to the country. Three scientists decided to develop their careers in Lithuania. Nature spoke to Juozas Gordeviius, the founder of Vugene.

Scientists are keen to help each other in a culture where collaboration is a priority. It is easier because the country has a population of over two million.

In 2020, for example, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) chose Vilnius University’s Life Science Center, which houses three research institutes (biochemistry, biotechnology and biosciences), to partner with it to develop genome-editing technologies. The partnership lasts between five and nine years, and is one of seven created around the world since 2019.

Six years after the rejection, iknys gained recognition for his work when he won a share of the $1-million Kalvi Prize.

The turnover of talent in Lithuania from 1990 to 2023 and the rate of migration since then: A paper by Vilnius chemist and biotechnologist Vladas Bumelis

There was an exodus of talent in Lithuania. The population decreased from 1990 to 2023. Some people returning home from abroad and moving to the country could change this trend. According to the state data agency, migration exceeds emigration every year, with 87, 373 people coming into the country in2022 but only 15,270 leaving. Since 2017, the number of Lithuanians returning to their home country has risen steadily from 10,155 that year to 23,712 in 2021. There was a dip in 2022, possibly owing to the proximity of the country to the war in Ukraine.

According to the non-profit organization Invest Lithuania, which aims to attract foreign investment into the country, 57.5% of 25–34-year-olds have received tertiary education. This is among the highest of in EU countries and well above the EU average (41.2%). And of all students who began doctoral studies in 2021, 28% were in natural sciences, mathematics or statistics.

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 was also found by him.

In 2010 it acquired a biotech company called 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.

A paper1 by Virginijus Šikšnys at Vilnius University’s Institute of Biotechnology and his colleagues on CRISPR–Cas 9 is published three months after a paper2 by Jennifer Doudna, Emmanuelle Charpentier and their colleagues, who are widely credited with co-inventing the gene-editing technique.

Biochemist Saulius Klimašauskas at Vilnius University wins Lithuania’s first European Research Council advanced grant — €2.5 million (US$2.7 million) — for his research proposal on epigenetic change.

Bioinformatics: a journey from Lithuania to Canada with the Van Andel Institute to Grand Rapids as a consultant for biomedical research institutes

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

Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union nine years before I was born. I was part of the first generation that did not have compulsory Russian lessons at school. In 2004, I obtained a master’s degree in computer science from the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano in Italy, and worked for a former online-news-aggregation company, after becoming eligible to work in the EU. 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 out drinking beer with some other people in Toronto, Canada. Arturas Petro is a genetics researcher at the University of Toronto. I stated that I didn’t want to work for a company that hired me but I really was into computer science. Instead, I wanted to do something that contributes to human health (my older brother and sister are both physicians). He said, try bioinformatics, it’s 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 biological data-science consultant and travelled back and forth between Canada and Lithuania for years because that year I was also appointed as a bioinformatics researcher at Vilnius University’s Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. At night I was working and then at day I was working.

In 2019, I joined the Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a bioinformatics scientist. The work of a bioinformatician is very limited in the classroom. Universities have lots of people who do the experiments and typically hire only one bioinformatician. You need to do everything in the lab, which is run the servers, manage the data and write the code. The project becomes very long. It can take a year or two to arrive at a result that is publishable. It is interesting in the beginning, but you feel lonely after a while. I imagined that with a team of people working with me it would be much faster.

Vugene in Lithuania is based at the Sunrise Valley Science and Technology Park in Vilnius, close to the University’s Life Sciences Center, with a second office in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city. The company offers bioinformatics data science as a service, specializing in biomedical research, bioinformatics, machine learning and software engineering.

In the wake of the COVID 19 epidemic, I decided to return toLithuania with my wife to build a company there. At first, I was doing everything alone.

Source: How bioinformatics led one scientist home to Lithuania

How bioinformatics led one scientist home to Lithuania: Milda, a student at VIlmenau, where she worked as a supervisor

Our clients include research laboratories looking at the origins, causes, treatments and diagnostics of various complex disorders, such as cancers or neurodegenerative diseases. Vugene manages large data sets, performs quality control, processes raw data and does statistical analysis.

The first hire was a big step. I’m very lucky to have people who joined me. Milda was the first-year genetics student at VIlmenau. I became her supervisor when she was doing her thesis on the expression of retroviruses in Parkinson’s disease. She worked for the company part-time. She is doing her master’s while working here.

Working at a company while studying happens in Lithuania a lot. I took on four students, three undergrads and one PhD. This is in addition to two postdocs, and a chief executive and a designer.

Source: How bioinformatics led one scientist home to Lithuania

Business Development Manager in Lithuania During the Pandemic. A Natural Path to the Next-Generation Biopharmaceutics and Sailing in Lithuania

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. It feels great to be in a country that is changing so fast.

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.

I loved laboratory work while I was a student at Vilnius University. When the labs shut down during the Pandemic, I lost my motivation.

I worked on a portfolio of nucleic-acid medicines, helping senior product managers with requests from different companies for different types of drugs. I carried on working at Thermo, during my master’s degree in molecular biotechnology, also at Vilnius University. Even on the administrative and business side, many people had a master’s or PhD.

I wanted to see what the life sciences field was like, and to have a look at options other than working in the laboratory, when I was a science student.

I applied for a business-development manager role there and started work in March 2022, while doing my master’s degree, which I completed last year. My job involves relationship building and representing the company abroad.

Caszyme: a new family of nucleotide platforms for biomedical applications in Lithuania (mathcalnu-economy, biochemistry and biotechnology)

The Caszyme is focused on three elements. The first is research: finding new CRISPR–Cas nucleases for companies that are looking for specific characteristics. The company offers licences for further development of its platform of nucleases. Companies can get help with the expression, purification and biochemical analysis of the nucleases.

The firm has a number of collaborations in the diagnostics field, including infectious diseases.

I think there are many aspects of academia and industry that set Lithuania apart from other countries. First, we have great universities that prepare scientists very well for the future. Scientists leave with not only theoretical knowledge, but also research experience working in a lab.

The Ecosystem is not really a big deal. It is easy to get to know most people and that makes collaborating a lot easier.

My proudest achievement 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. Last June, aged 25, I was promoted to head of business development.

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

Is it OK to Work in a Laboratory? A Pedestrian’s Guide to Scientific Activities in Lithuania (and What I’m Up to in Italy)

In Lithuania, I work remotely from the city of Kaunas which is known for it’s art Deco architecture and has a beautiful old town. 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 don’t want to work abroad permanently. The country ofLithuania has a great countryside and is full of culture. I have been a volunteer for the past few years at the international film festival which takes place in March.

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. If it doesn’t work out, try something else, and chat with people who are different from you. There are opportunities to explore.

I talk to lots of people at events and many of them have PhDs or have worked as postdocs but have decided that they don’t want to be scientists. There’s nothing shameful in that. People who work in operations and have a scientific degree are essential.