Sandra Mjöll Jónsdóttir-Buch, adjunct at the Faculty of Medicine
The research of doctoral students working with their supervisors not only provides new perspectives on society, our environment, and ourselves; it can also sow the seeds for new and exciting business ventures. This is most definitely the case concerning the doctoral thesis of Sandra Mjöll Jónsdóttir-Buch, who holds the position of adjunct at the Department of Biomedical Science. Sandra completed her doctorate in the autumn of 2017.
The doctoral study and the operations of the company Platome Biotechnology, founded by Sandra with her supervisor, Ólafur Eysteinn Sigurjónsson, professor and head of stem cell research at the Icelandic Blood Bank, revolves around using blood cells, formerly discarded, as nutrients for growing human cells in laboratories.
The foundation for the company was laid in Sandra’s summer project supported by the Student Innovation Fund at the Blood Bank in 2011. “This was shortly after the financial crash of 2008, and not a lot of money going around, so research subjects were hard to come by. We ended up by looking in the trash, where we found platelets that the Blood Bank was discarding, and asked ourselves: what can we use this for?”
Sandra Mjöll Jónsdóttir-Buch
"There is great hope tied to the company and we feel a certain amount of pressure; there is a certain vision at the heart of the company which we remain true to. This is research work, creation of knowledge, and creating good products."
Sandra and Ólafur certainly found an answer to that. “If you want to look at cells, or grow an organ, bones or cartilage you have to work with cells outside the body, and of course they need to stay alive. The nutrient solutions we produce keep them alive. Currently the most common approach to this is to use animal blood, but since the scientific community has advanced to the stage where real clinical testing of cellular therapies is a real option, animal blood is not an ideal ingredient in the mix. We produce nutrient solutions, bottle them, and sell them on,” she says.
The company Platome biotechnology has been very successful during its first years; receiving a number of grants, for example from the Technology Development Fund. Participation in innovation competitions such as the Golden Egg and Reykjavík Startup has also been a source of great experience for Sandra and Ólafur. “In two years we have added seven staff members; growing from two to nine. We have a number of university students on board, we are hiring and we have increased our turnover sixfold in one year. We were furthermore chosen growth company of the year by the Icelandic business newspaper, Viðskiptablaðið, in 2017, and we also won Deloitte’s Rising Star competition,” says Sandra who now works as the company’s CEO.
Sandra is both optimistic and realistic concerning the company’s future. “I see the company as having potential in making great progress, but this will cost a lot of work and patience. There is great hope tied to the company and we feel a certain amount of pressure; there is a certain vision at the heart of the company which we remain true to. This is research work, creation of knowledge, and creating good products. We will endeavour to achieve this, however things may turn out.”