Thermo Fisher Baltics Delegation Visited the Institute

On June 10, a delegation from Thermo Fisher’s Baltic branch in Vilnius — part of the world’s largest biotechnology company — visited the Institute.

The members of the delegation included Justas Plankis, Thermo Fisher Baltics CEO and Tomas Janusis, Thermo Fisher Baltics Senior Distributor Manager, Life Sciences. They were accompanied by Consultations Head Kent Langel and Sales Manager Tarmo Mölder from Estonian biotechnology company Lanmer Ltd.

The Thermo Fisher Baltics delegation is spending two days in Tartu, visiting several research institutions and companies. The purpose of the visit to the UT Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology was to gain an overview of the institute’s development directions and to learn about the Mobile Bioclass project.

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The overview about the institute was given by Professor of Cell Biology Toivo Maimets. Professor of Molecular Biotechnology Ants Kurg as the Head of the Mobile Bioclass in Estonia introduced the developments of the class.

Launched in 2013, the Mobile Bioclass is a project initiated in Estonia by Thermo Fisher Baltics in cooperation with the University of Tartu. The company has been funding the project from the very beginning - without its support, it would not be possible to keep the project running.

Within 12 years the class has reached all Estonian counties and the travel route covers over 60,000 kilometers. Experiences from school visits from the last year were shared by gene technology students Maarja Runtal, Kethel Monso and Railin Viik who have been active in the class as mentors.

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During the meeting, several areas of collaboration between the institute and Thermo Fisher Baltics were discussed, including company internships and knowledge transfer PhD programmes. Both parties expressed continued strong interest in further cooperation.