Interview with Lucero Bio

If you join one, it should feel like “you’ve joined them all!”

Lucero bio is a bio convergence company that weds synergistic technologies from the fields of microbiology, laser optics, AI and micro fluids. The way this company was created is a story of mix and blend! And making good use of the opportunities that comes with being part of a life science cluster in the Nordics.

We turned to Lucero bio´s CEO Christopher Jacklin to learn more. Christopher is one of the chosen speakers at the Ticket to Ride Nordics event in Gothenburg, a Canadian that found his turf running a start up at the AstraZeneca BioVenture Hub.

Tell us about your company came about!

It was through Chalmers E-School/Chalmers Ventures, this is a collab that matches researchers with master students to investigate market potential of research. The matching program offers an opportunity to spin out a company if it looks promising, and this is what Lucero did.

What made it such a good match?  

It was the team really, our personalities matched. We also brought together a balance between tech/biz competence. I believe that the key was how we got along well, and shared vision and commitment.

You are all coming into this company with different backgrounds and perspectives. How has that mattered?  

The biggest benefit was that it made us ask stupid questions because we knew nothing. And as a result, we found out a lot. We also had no idea about who was “famous” in the industry, so we had no fear of approaching people whom we might otherwise not have.

I don´t have a science background, so the team needed to explain everything as if we were kids and that was good because we could then do the same for our users/partners. I came into this company journey with a fresh set of eyes looking at user problems and coming up with unique solutions that people in the field may not think about (material science, photonics).

The Nordics, after all, is a small corner of the world. How can we break through the noise of global biotech and get more traction here of both human capital and financial capital in your opinion?  

One of the strengths I see, moving here, is the ability to establish environments that provide access to resources people require for their activities, that they can’t find (easily) elsewhere. For example, for us – we’ve got access to lab equipment here at the BioVentureHub/AstraZeneca that we would never have otherwise and it’s extremely valuable to our development. Other things could be access to patients or clinics or biological material. This is one reason I’m excited about GoCo – it’s building a whole ecosystem for LS companies to innovate.

It all sounds very good but how can we step up our game even more on the international biotech scene?  

To make a stronger case globally, I’d love to see more concrete interconnectedness between the current life-science hubs in the Nordics. If you join one, it should feel like you’ve joined them all. Maybe you get access to facilities in Lund, or a specific tool in Oslo, or connected to a group in Uppsala. It’s hard for one site to compete with places like Boston or San Diego, for example. But the whole Nordic region, if we manage to come together, then it is a completely different story!