Life Science research at KTH
KTH conducts both basic and applied research within Life Science. This multidisciplinary research mostly concerns human health and the healthcare system, but also adjacent areas, for example, environment and sustainability. The common denominator of all research is the contribution to human well-being.
For the human wellbeing
Basic research, experimental methods and technologies, and applied science are needed to understand the human better and develop the healthcare system. With a constantly growing and ageing population, the demand is increasing for more cost-effective technology, new methods for diagnostics and treatment of complicated deceases, possibilities to improve the individual's quality of life and research that contributes to the possibilities to influence human beings outside the healthcare.
An area undergoing a revolution
Life sciences is traditionally defined as the study of processes and phenomena associated with living organisms and their organisation, life processes, and their relationships to each other and their environment. The field is in the midst of a revolutionary change due to the integration of powerful technologies along with new concepts and methods derived from the inclusion of engineering, physical sciences, and mathematical sciences. For example, much of the recent progress in genetics, molecular & cellular biology depends mainly on technologies that allow acquiring information from all scales of biological organisation.
New interdisciplinary areas
Furthermore, several new interdisciplinary areas like bioinformatics, computational imaging, computational biology, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology have accelerated this convergence of disciplines, which we refer to as life science technologies, and describe the research using seven thematic research areas . Future progress in addressing the challenges in life sciences will depend on the ability to promote and take advantage of life science technologies.