Meet the 2009/2010 participants

Name: Francesco Strino

Background: I am currently in the last year of my industrial PhD student at Biognos AB in collaboration with Göteborg University. My background is quite broad: I started my education as a medical engineer at the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Afterwards I completed with distinction my MSc in bioinformatics at Chalmers University of Technology, and now I am doing my PhD at Göteborg University (at the medical faculty in the department of biomedicine). My research is focused on the conformation of sugars: I am the main developer of GLYGAL, a software that can predict the 3D structure of this class of molecules using a specially tailored genetic algorithm. I have also investigated medically relevant bacterial oligosaccharides and the mimetic properties of hetero-substituted glycosides. At Biognos I have been mostly working with ligand-based in silico screening and database development.

Why did you apply for this course?
I think that researchers (me included) have a certain tendency to specialize in their own area of research and disregard external areas. I think that a good understanding of economical and managerial factors will be very useful in the future to interact successfully with the industry and to be able to fully develop my research and myself as a professional.

What have you learned so far that surprised you?
The most important discovery so far has been that customer needs and presentation are probably more important than the actual quality of a product.

How do you think this course will help you develop your idea?
I think this course will teach me how to think and act in an entrepreneurial way, in particular to direct my research efforts towards more practical and useful directions. I think I will also benefit from interacting and networking with entrepreneurs and with fellow students that are interested in becoming one.

Would you recommend other to take this course, in that case why?
The course has just begun, so I can’t give an answer yet. If the course will continue to be so interesting, I will surely recommend it to any other PhD student.