Towards a Swedish Centre of Excellence in Bioanalytics: Introducing BACE

The BioAnalytical Cluster of Excellence, BACE, has been granted funding by Vinnova as part of Sweden’s national Clusters of Excellence programme and is now in the process of being established. The initiative brings together leading expertise from academia, research institutes, industry, healthcare, and governmental agencies.

Part of Sweden’s Clusters of Excellence Programme

BACE is one of 45 projects selected in the first call of Vinnova’s Clusters of Excellence initiative, a national programme supporting the development of world-leading research and innovation environments in six strategic technology areas. BACE falls under the Biotechnology category, alongside other selected projects in areas such as precision medicine, genomics, and pharmaceutical innovation.

The current project phase runs from October 2025 to March 2026, with a budget of 1,975,714 SEK. This phase lays the groundwork for what is intended to become a fully established cluster with long-term funding.

Addressing the Preanalytical Gap

Modern molecular technologies are extraordinarily sensitive, capable of detecting individual molecules. But the value of that precision depends on the quality of the sample before it reaches the analyser. The preanalytical phase, covering everything from sample collection through to preparation for molecular analysis, is where errors most commonly occur, and where BACE focuses its efforts.

Without robust, standardised preanalytical processes, even the most advanced analysis risks producing results that are misleading or impossible to reproduce. BACE aims to close this gap by developing, validating, and standardising end-to-end workflows that are adaptable across multiple omics fields.

Focus Areas

BACE’s planned work spans a broad range of interconnected topics:

• Precision bioanalytics and diagnostics
• Pre-analytics and pre-preanalytics (including lifestyle, circadian, and environmental factors affecting samples)
• Near-patient sampling and multiomics workflows
• AI-driven workflow optimisation, harmonisation, and data modelling
• Translation of innovations into practical, scalable bioanalytical methodologies

Broad Applications

The potential applications for BACE’s work are wide-ranging, spanning precision medicine, treatment monitoring, pharmaceutical innovation, public health, environmental monitoring, archaeogenetics, food diagnostics, veterinary medicine, forensics, and biodefense. For the ATMP field in particular, sample integrity and workflow standardisation are critical enablers; areas where BACE’s expertise is directly relevant.

Leadership and Partners

The project is coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and led by:

• Joakim Håkansson (RISE)
• Yalda Bogestål (RISE)
• Mikael Kubista (Precision BioAnalytics)
• Anders Ståhlberg (Gothenburg University)

The initiative counts a substantial number of partners from across Sweden’s life science ecosystem, including industry, healthcare providers, and public agencies.

Open to Collaboration

As BACE takes shape, the initiative is actively seeking partners with relevant expertise, including in bioanalytical method development, sample management, multiomics data analysis, biobanking, quality assurance, and financiers.

• For more information or to explore collaboration opportunities, contact: yalda.bogestal@ri.se
• View the official BACE Vinnova poster here.