Partnership between DTU Chemistry and LEO Pharma will give students the opportunity to experience how a global pharmaceutical company works with innovation and research
The partnership includes workshops, special training sessions and project assignments, and as part of the program the students will get the opportunity to work directly with innovation and research in several ways: they will be working on their own projects in DTU Skylab’s laboratories, and they will get a unique opportunity to work on an ongoing research project with LEO Pharma. DTU Skylab is an innovation hub, a so-called ‘maker space’ which facilitates innovation among all students at DTU.
”This is an extraordinary opportunity for DTU Chemistry students! They get to directly interact with a leading pharmaceutical company during their studies and learn from LEO Pharma’s knowhow. LEO Pharma is offering students various ways to interact with their Open Innovation initiative, which is very exciting,” says Professor Mads Hartvig Clausen, responsible for DTU Chemistry´s part of the partnership.
LEO Pharma Open Innovation operates with the philosophy that the best research results are achieved with an open approach to innovation and collaboration. In practice, this means that LEO Pharma Open Innovation offers any scientist who has developed a molecule, which may have potential within treatment of skin diseases, access to having the compound testes at LEO Pharma’s laboratories, with no strings attached.
The transparent approach also forms the foundation for LEO Pharma’s partnership with DTU Chemistry: all research data from the course and input from discussions will be available to the students, and LEO Pharma has waived all intellectual property rights relating to the partnership. At the same time, LEO Pharma is ready to discuss potential collaboration, should the students’ work result in new discoveries during the program.
“Our overall objective with the partnership with DTU Chemistry is to reduce the distance between students and our industry, and in that way help develop the students into even better scientists in the longer term. By sharing what we call our ‘patient science’, we provide the students with unique insights into how we transform our knowledge about patients’ needs into science in our laboratories,” says Niclas Nilsson, Head of LEO Pharma Open Innovation.
The students will be invited into LEO Pharma’s engine room: they will be working together with the company’s researchers and test theory from their studies in practice. Students will be working on a current LEO Pharma research project aiming at finding new anti-inflammatory molecules for treatment of eczema. Moreover, they will – with help from DTU Skylab – among other get the opportunity to design and test new molecules on their own.
“The way ideas are generated and new medicines are developed is undergoing dramatic changes in these years. Breaking down traditional barriers between public and private enterprises is a big part of that revolution. DTU Chemistry is proud to work hand-in-hand with LEO Pharma to educate the next generation of chemical engineers, who will be trained to work in new and innovative ways,” says Mads Hartvig Clausen.
”We hope that our partnership with DTU will put LEO Pharma on the map for students, so that they think of us when they have completed their studies and are looking at potential employers. In that way, you can say that we regard the partnership with DTU as an investment in the scientists of the future,” says Niclas Nilsson.
“We look greatly forward to bringing the open innovation pharmaceutical mindset to the students at DTU Chemistry and to working together with LEO Pharma Open Innovation,” says Workshop Manager Rasmus Barfod from DTU Skylab.