Contacts

Vice President for Manufacturing Operations and General Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world’s largest company offering products and services for science. The company began operations in Lithuania in 2010 with the acquisition of the biotechnology company Fermentas. Markauskas has been working for the company since 2003, and has managed it since 2008. In 2003–2010, Markauskas was the Vice President for Development of Fermentas International, an international holding that owned shares in Fermentas and its joint ventures in the USA, Canada, Germany and China. Under Markauskas’ leadership, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics was recognised the Global Centre of Excellence for Bioproducts in 2012 and in 2017 was awarded the International Shingo Prize for excellence in business process improvement. Markauskas has been named CEO of the Year in Lithuania three times, by the daily newspaper Verslo Žinios in 2015, 2019 and 2021. Currently, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics is one of the largest companies in Lithuania, employing more than 1,800 highly skilled professionals. The company’s Scientific Research and Experimental Development Centre with over 200 scientists and researchers is one of the largest private research centres in Eastern Europe.

Dovilė is co-founder and managing partner of the Law Firm Walless. She has over 20 years of experience in corporate governance, M&A and financing, venture capital and private equity. Burgienė is one of the most prominent corporate law professionals in the Baltics and has been ranked by international legal directories (Chambers, Legal 500, IFLR1000) for her consistent client praise and excellence. Burgienė is also the Vice President and a Board Member of the Lithuanian Business Confederation, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Vilnius University Foundation, a co-founder of the Leader Association, a member of the Steering Group of the International Bar Association's Corporate Law Committee, and a board member of several companies.

Dr Eglė Radzevičienė is the Director for Intellectual Property Management at Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB. Dr Radzevičienė has expertise in the intersection of three disciplines: molecular biotechnology, business management and intellectual property law. Dr Radzevičienė received her PhD in natural sciences from Lomonosov Moscow State University and has worked as a researcher in the US and Lithuania for over 14 years. After joining UAB Fermentas, she was in charge of intellectual property management in the company and has over 20 years of experience in this field. Dr Radzevičienė also holds a Master's degree in Business Management from the International Business School at Vilnius University and has passed the European Patent Attorney qualification examinations. She is also included in the Candidate Support Project of the European Patent Office with a view to qualifying as a European Patent Attorney in 2022.

Dr Erika Vaiginienė’s research and consultancy activities include the fields of higher education, entrepreneurship, innovation management and policy development. Dr Vaiginienė has been working at Vilnius University since 2000. In 2010, she established the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre at the International Business School at Vilnius University. The Centre was engaged in knowledge transfer to the market and developed a programme for training entrepreneurial competences. While working at the Lithuanian Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (MITA), Dr Vaiginienė became familiar with the Lithuanian innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. As a consultant for the Technopolis Group, she worked on several international projects to develop the EU innovation ecosystem. Recently, she has implemented several projects for science commercialisation processes at scientific institutions and contributed to the establishment of the Lithuanian Social Innovation Cluster (2020). In 2018–2022, she managed the Strategic Planning Unit of Vilnius University. Since 2018, Dr Vaiginienė has been working with Foresight methodology. She participates in the methodology group for the development of the long-term strategy ‘Lithuania 2050’.

Dr Linas Mažutis is an international scientist, biochemist and micro-technologist. He received his PhD from the University of Strasbourg and did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University, Columbia University and California Institute of Technology. His publications are widely cited in the scientific literature, he is a co-author of several patents and a co-founder of two biotech start-ups.

Dr Vytautas Naktinis is a scientist in molecular biology and biopharmaceuticals and an entrepreneur – experienced board member of biotech/biopharmaceutical companies, internationally knowledgeable R&D manager in biotech and biopharmaceutical companies, a visionary leader and a member of the management teams, building the infrastructure and product portfolio of biopharmaceutical companies from the roots to becoming a profitable leader in the biosimilars market worldwide. Researcher and Head of Laboratory at the Institute of Applied Enzymology (now Institute of Biotechnology of Vilnius University). In 1978–1991, he led the country’s first project to develop a recombinant biopharmaceutical human growth hormone (known as Somatogen-L and Biosoma), and subsequently several recombinant biopharmaceutical protein projects, including the country's most successful commercial filgrastim of all time (commercial names Grasalva and TevaGrastim®), the first biosimilar filgrastim to have been granted a marketing authorization in the European Union. In 1993–2004, he was R&D Director, Board Member and one of the key shareholders of Biofa AB, Biotechna UAB and Sicor Biotech (TEVA Group), playing a key role in successfully leading a national company into the international biosimilars M&A market, as well as in shaping the strategy for biosimilars in the EU and the US and the positioning of biosimilars in the generics portfolio of TEVA Group. From 2005 to the present – a freelance consultant Dr Naktinis holds a Master’s Degree in Chemistry of Natural Compounds from Vilnius University (1969). In 1974–1978, he did his doctoral studies in Molecular Biology at the Institute of Molecular Biology of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow and in 1983 received a doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Institute of Genetics and Breeding of Industrial Microorganisms in Moscow. In 1991–1995, he was a guest scholar under the Howard

Dr Gediminas Kostkevičius is Chairman and the Managing Director of Ortho Baltic. Kostkevičius graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute and Vilnius University (mathematical engineer and Master of Law). He holds the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences. He took an active part in the Reform Movement in Lithuania (Sąjūdis): he was a member of the Seimas of Sąjūdis, chairman of the Aukuras Club and the committee for the restoration of the monument to Duke Vytautas the Great in Kaunas. He was also chairman of the organising committee for the Conference on the Restoration of Vytautas Magnus University. Kostkevičius has published dozens of scientific, legal and popular articles, and is the author/co-author of four books.

Prof. Dr Habil. Gintaras Valušis is a graduate of the Faculty of Physics at Vilnius University. In 1992, he defended his PhD thesis in natural sciences and in 2007 he was awarded a habilitation degree. In 1995–1996, he completed his post-doctoral studies at the Institute of Applied Photophysics at Dresden University of Technology; in 2000 and 2003, he won an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation scholarship and did his fellowship at the Institute of Physics of Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main, Germany). Since 2013, Valušis has been the Director of the Centre for Physical and Technological Sciences (FTMC), Head of the Optoelectronics Division of the FTMC, and Professor at the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology at the Faculty of Physics of Vilnius University. Research interests: optoelectronics and terahertz physics, nanotechnology and semiconductor physics. He is a member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Board of the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO). Prof. Valušis was awarded the Lithuanian Science Award and the Cross of the Officer of the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania (6 July 2016) for his merits to the Republic of Lithuania and for promoting Lithuania throughout the world.

Prof. Artūras Petronis is a psychiatrist and researcher on the origins of human diseases, currently a Professor at the University of Toronto and Vilnius University. Prof. Petronis was one of the first in the world to pioneer epigenetic research on mental disorders and other non-neoplastic diseases. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, many in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Reviews Genetics, etc. Prof. Petronis is developing an original and unique chrono-epigenomics programme, in which it is expected that young Lithuanian scientists will play an important role.

Prof. Dr Habil. Arvydas Janulaitis studied at Kaunas Institute of Medicine. He completed his studies at St. Petersburg University in Russia in biochemistry and genetics programmes. In 1975–2003, he worked at the Institute of Applied Enzymology (subsequently Institute of Biotechnology). In 2003–2011, he was a director of the Scientific Centre Fermentas (now Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltic). The main areas of his scientific interest are fundamental and applied research of enzymes used in genetic engineering and pharmaceutical recombinant human proteins, and the development of their production technologies. His research has contributed to the development of genetic engineering as a field. As a result of the research led by him, it was in Lithuania that a third of all known restriction enzymes widely used in genetic engineering were discovered. Lithuania also kept pace with global achievements of the time in the field of recombinant human protein technologies for pharmaceutical applications. The research carried out at the institute laid the foundations for the first modern biotechnology companies in Lithuania (Fermentas, Biofa), which subsequently became divisions of the global companies Thermo Fisher Scientific and Teva Sicor, which were integral to Lithuania and its scientific potential becoming famous. Prof. Janulaitis initiated, developed strategies and managed the establishment of these companies, participated in their activities, and trained employees, thus contributing to the training of a generation of world-renowned Lithuanian biotechnologists capable of competing in the global science and business market. In 2013, he founded Diagnolita, a start-up that develops molecular diagnostic methods for cancer (or for coronavirus [during the pandemic]) and applies them in medical diagnostics. Prof. Janulaitis has been awarded the Lithuanian Science Award for restriction-modification enzyme research (1994), the National Science Progress Award for the establishment of the scientific foundations for the Lithuanian biotechnology industry and for the application of scientific achievements in production (2007). He is a member of the Lithuanian Academy of Science and two international academies of sciences. Since the Reform Movement in Lithuania (Sąjūdis), Prof. Janulaitis has been actively involved in shaping science policy in Lithuania. He was a member of: the Council for Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Board of the Science and Studies Foundation, the Lithuanian Science Award Committee, the Council of the Knowledge Economy Forum, and the chairman of the Education and Science Committee of this Forum, etc. He has written a chapter for the book entitled Nepriklausomos Lietuvos aukštojo mokslo vargdenė [discussion on higher education in Lithuania].

Vice-Rector for Science at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), Head of the Molecular Cardiology Laboratory at the Institute of Cardiology at LSMU, Professor at the Clinic of Pathological Anatomy. Prof. Lesauskaitė explores the pathogenetic mechanisms of chronic non-infectious diseases, looks for molecular markers, and conducts pharmacogenetic studies. In 2018, together with co-authors, she was awarded the Lithuanian National Science Award for their work ‘Chronic Non-Infectious Diseases: from Population to Genes (2003–2017)’.

Lithuanian chemist, Dr Habil. of physical sciences, one of the former managers of the biotechnology company Fermentas (now Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltic). Prof. Butkus graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Vilnius University in 1976 and received his PhD from the Moscow Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in 1982. In 1990, he was awarded a habilitation degree in bioorganic chemistry from Moscow University. In 1979–1995, he worked at the Institute of Applied Enzymology (now the Institute of Biotechnology); in 1984–1988, he was the head of the Laboratory of Nucleic Acids Chemistry; 1988–1989 – the head of the Department of Enzymes in Molecular Biology; in 1989–1994 – deputy director for science of the institute. Prof. Butkus has lectured at Vilnius University and Vytautas Magnus University. In 1995, he was awarded the title of professor. He has published more than 40 publications in the international scientific press and co-authored 16 inventions. In 1994, he was awarded the Lithuanian National Award and in 2001 – the Cross of the Knight of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. In 2009, he founded the then Modern Art Centre in Vilnius; it has been known as the MO Museum since 2017. Prof. Butkus has been awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Vilnius.

Prof. Juozas Kupčinskas is the Head of the Clinic of Gastroenterology and the Institute for Digestive Research of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and a member of the Council of the European Association for Gastroenterology, Endoscopy and Nutrition. He defended his PhD thesis in 2012 at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), and completed fellowships at university hospitals and research centres in Germany and Israel. Research interests: microbiomes, liquid biopsy, and translational research in inflammatory and neoplastic gastrointestinal diseases.

Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys is a professor at Vilnius University, a member of the Lithuanian Academy of Science and international academies of science, and one of the pioneers of CRISPR-Cas systems research. His work has led to the development of new genome editing tools. This work has been widely recognised and has been awarded several international prizes, including the Kavli Prize.

Professor of Genetics at Vilnius University, Dr (HP), and the Deputy Director for Science and Development at the National Cancer Institute. She holds a Master’s Degree in Biology, is a qualified medical biologist, and has a Master’s Degree in Health Policy and Management. Areas of expertise: cancer genetics and genomics, molecular markers for cancer. Prof. Jarmalaitė was awarded the Lithuanian Science Award (2018) and the Cross of the Knight of the Order of the Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania (2019). She is a member of the National Health Council, the Council for the Prevention and Control of Cancer, a country representative on the EC Cancer Subcommittee, BBMRI-ERIC Boards, and the Chair of the Lithuanian Society for Medical Oncology.