In the latest Proteins in Proximity podcast from Olink, Jochen Schwenk, professor at KTH/ Scilifelab is interviewed about his career, scientific background, and how genetics can empower proteomics in his field of translational proteomics.

He describes how his biochemistry studies in Tübingen and how meeting with Nobel laureates in Lindau created a lot of curiosity about science. He talks about how he later focused that interest more on technologies and joined the Human Protein Atlas project as a postdoc and an early developer of multiplexed immunoassays. After joining SciLifeLab, his interest in new techniques has also resulted in the use of in-house Olink assays and exploration of dried blood spots for COVID testing. He explains why he wants to use proteomics for real-time biology and health monitoring, and as he says, ?We want a movie of our lives and not a single picture?. In the interview, they discuss a study in which plasma was analyzed for causal proteins of breast cancer by investigating 600 women participating in a Swedish mammography screening program. By using genotype analysis in combination with 3000 circulating proteins, they compared future cases with those that remained disease-free to identify a small number of proteins with a possible causal role in breast cancer.

Watch the podcast