Swedish-American Life Science Summit (SALSS) to Address Major Issues Including Healthcare Reform, Synthetic Biology and Innovative Financing fo...( STOCKHOLM Aug. 17 ...)

STOCKHOLM, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Swedish-American Life Science Summit (SALSS) today announced that U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D. Colo) will be a keynote speaker at the fifth annual summit, which opens in Stockholm on August 20, 2009. Ms. DeGette, co-sponsor of the pioneering Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in 2007 and an advisor to President Obama on healthcare reform, will help open SALSS, a vital showcase for the Swedish life sciences and a forum for bringing together leading scientists, investors and corporate executives from both the U.S. and Swedish life science communities.

Other headliners at SALSS include Prof. Jay Keasling of U.C. Berkley, who was awarded Discover's Scientist of the Year prize for making the biggest impact in science. Prof. Keasling is a leader in the area of synthetic biology and heads OneWorld Health, a non- profit company that develops drugs for neglected infectious diseases.

Other SALSS participants include: Prof. Mathias Uhlen, founder of the Swedish Human Protein Atlas; Prof. Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, President of Karolinska Institutet; Dr. William A. Haseltine, founder of Human Genome Sciences; Dr. Stephen Friend, President of Sage Bionetworks; Scott Sarazen, Global Life Sciences Markets Leader, Ernst & Young; and Dr. Anders Ekblom, Executive V.P. AstraZeneca, and many more exciting speakers.

The summit will be opened by Princess Christina of Sweden, Mrs. Magnuson, who is the former Chairperson of the Swedish Red Cross.

Among the group of the new promising life sciences companies is Cell Therapy Ltd, a company initiated by Nobel Laureate, Sir Martin Evans, a pioneer in embryonic stems cells.

Barbro Ehnbom, Founder and Chairman of SALSS states: "We are experiencing a major paradigm shift in healthcare. The rules have changed. By bringing together two of the major
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