Lars Sundstrom's Biography

Lars Sundstrom, Professor of Practice in Translational Medicine, Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, Bristol University

Prof. Lars Sundstrom is Professor of Practice in Translational Medicine at Bristol University and also Director of Enterprise and Translation at the West of England Academic Health Sciences Network. He is also and an honorary Professor of Medcine at Cardiff University. Lars has 30 years experience working in translational medicine at the Universities of Bristol Cardiff, Southampton, Bordeaux , Oxford and several years working in industry developing new therapeutics and tools for drug discovery. Lars has held executive and board level positions in several SMEs and has also been an advisor to several UK wide and European Commission led groups, on in-vitro alternatives to animal models. In 2002-2012 he was Chief Scientific Officer at Capsant Technologies LTD, one of the first companies to commercially developing 3D Tissue models for drug discover applications based on reconstituted human primary tissues and human Stem cells. Since 2009 he has been involved in building translational networks with the NHS, universities with industry at a regional level in the west of the UK. In 2009 he set up led the Severnside Alliance for Translational Research (SARTRE) a devolved funding scheme supported by the MRC and the Welsh Govt and in 2012 he co-founded the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health research at Bristol University, In 2013 he took up the role as Director of Enterprise in the West of England Academic Health Sciences Network (funded by NHS England). Lars also currently chairs the Health Sector group of the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership.