EIT Health: Morning Health Talks

EIT Health Morning Health Talks – Events for Healthcare Transformation

How Open Innovation can contribute to the Transformation of Healthcare in the InnoStars countries

Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development organizes the second edition of PORT for Health: Oncology conference, where we converge to explore the latest breakthroughs in three pivotal oncology-related domains: cancer biology, cancer therapy, and cancer neuroscience. Our primary mission focuses on advancing new therapeutic avenues for oncological diseases. This conference serves as a beacon for collaboration, offering a platform for scientists, clinicians, and industry leaders to engage in dynamic discourse, exchange knowledge, and catalyze transformative projects. The conference will take place on 19-20 September 2024. We have 19 speakers from all over the world, who agreed to come to Wrocław and deliver talks focused on different aspects of cancer. The agenda is available on the conference website: https://health.port.org.pl/

Morning Health Talks will be a satellite event during the conference held on the 20th of September in the morning.

The conference will bring together many diverse stakeholders from Poland and abroad (scientists, clinicians, biotech/pharma representatives) who will form an audience of EIT Health’s Morning Health Talks and directly benefit from the panel discussions.

Cancer research continues to deliver hugely successful innovations. Each year brings more and better therapeutic drugs. New medical technologies, such as CAR T-cell therapy, are improving outcomes and our understanding of cancer has never been so advanced.

Similarly, cancer care has seen improvements in the speed and accuracy of diagnostic procedures; the effectiveness of surgery, radiation therapy and medical treatments; the power of information technology; and the development of multidisciplinary, specialist-led approaches to care. Yet, globally the number of cancer deaths has increased by 40% in just over a decade.

Large funding projects geared towards high-tech science development (the recently relaunched Cancer program in the UK, or the EU Mission on Cancer with the very ambitious Beating Cancer Plan) are undoubtedly well-intentioned. However, without a complementary investment in research into implementation, the result is likely to be increasingly inequitable cancer care globally, focused on incremental advances that only a small minority of patients can access. Perhaps the idea of innovation in cancer research and cancer care needs to be redefined.

Within this context, it is critical to balance the investment in innovation with the need to ensure the sustainability of healthcare budgets, and this is a global concern where Open Innovation can help.

Panel discussion topic:

How can Open Innovation contribute to the transformation of CANCER care?

Description: Decisions on innovations should take into account their long-term impact on patient outcomes and costs, not just their immediate costs. Adopting a culture of innovation requires a multidisciplinary team approach, with the patient at the center and an integral part of the team.

Invited panelists will represent different parties interested and engaged in biomedical innovations, and will share their perspectives on Open Innovations in this field. We plan to invite representatives from industry, academic institutions, funding bodies, NGOs but also healthcare providers, and local authorities to the panel. 

The discussion will be focused on how to recalibrate research priorities and utilize Open Innovation to maximize the benefit for patients. We will discuss the opportunities and risks of the Open Innovation Initiative: How to support innovations in the Polish (oncology) ecosystem and bring them to society.

Proposed themes for the discussion:

Confirmed panel speakers:

Michał Malewicz, PhD, in 2019 he moved back to Germany to work as the Head of Molecular Biology at an early-stage biotech Genome Biologics, where he had directed the team working on novel human heart organoid technology. From the end of 2020, Michal is directing the Laboratory of Genome Dynamics (Łukasiewicz – PORT, Poland), where his group focuses on the mechanisms of DNA damage responses and their connection to cancer development utilizing CRISPR/Base editing genome editing technologies and advanced models of disease such as IPSC-derived human organoids. From the beginning of 2022, Michal had been appointed as the Director of Life Science and Biotechnology Centre at Łukasiewicz – PORT.

Monika Litwin, PhD, and R&D manager. She works as a scientist and manager with more than 10 years of experience in the biotech and clinical sectors. Monika obtained a PhD in tumor biology from the University of Wrocław and completed postgraduate studies in Project Management at Wroclaw University of Economics. Following her post-doctoral studies, she worked at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, focusing primarily on clinical trials and immuno-oncology drug development. At the biotech company Pure Biologics, she led the development of a bifunctional antibody, advancing it to clinical phase 0 in 2024. Currently, at the Oncology Centre, she leads and oversees international research projects, ensuring they are scientifically robust, innovative, and clinically relevant.
 

Marek Kozlowski, PhD MScEng combines 20 years of experience in research, industry and company building across Life Science & Healthcare with a focus on therapeutics, diagnostics and lab tools. Marek is currently a Senior Investment Director at NRW.Venture and a board director at 4TEEN4 Pharmaceuticals, SphingoTec, Abalos Therapeutics, Resolve Biosciences and Emergence Therapeutics (sold in 2023). Marek is a trained biotechnologist (Warsaw University) and molecular biologist (European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Ludwig Maximilian University).

Marek Sipowicz, MD and PhD with 25 years of experience in clinical research and drug development in oncology (hematology and solid tumors), neuropsychiatry, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Specialist gynecologist educated in Poland, completed postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, USA. During his career, responsible for initiating and managing global phase I-IV clinical trials, including morbi-mortality trials on a large patient population; for over 20 years in executive positions at Servier, an international pharmaceutical company, serving as Director of Clinical Operations (in oncology) at the company’s headquarters in France and Director of Clinical Research and Drug Development in Australia.

Michał Woyczyński is a member of the Marketing and Communication team in Saving Kids with Cancer Foundation – one of the largest foundations in Poland for children in paediatric oncology. He has experience in business communication, copywriting and Public Relations, which, in conjunction with his education in pedagogy and journalism, gives him a unique insight into the needs and possible solutions for young patients’ problems.While working at the Foundation, he has participated in the creation of the annual report, the largest public campaign for tax-related donations in Poland, as well as several events and actions of varied scale, including two editions of Gold September.

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