Mikael Kubista

Last updated
Mikael Kubista
Mikael face cut.png
Born (1961-08-13) 13 August 1961 (age 64)
CitizenshipSwedish
Alma mater
Known for
  • quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR)
  • TATAA Biocenter
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry
Institutions

Mikael Kubista (born 13 August 1961) is a Czech-born [1] Swedish chemist and entrepreneur who works in the field of molecular diagnostics.

Contents

Education

He completed his undergraduate studies at University of Gothenburg, earning a B.Sc. degree in chemistry in 1984. [2] He then pursued a Licentiate in Physical Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, which he completed in 1986. Kubista obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from Chalmers University of Technology. [3] Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and Yale University in New Haven, US. [1] [4] Additionally, he has held visiting professor positions at various universities, including the University of Maryland in College Park, US, in June 2000, and the University of A Coruña in Spain, during September–November 2003 and July 2006 to June 2007. [1]

Career

Academic career

Kubista began his academic career in 1991 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology. [1] From 1993 to 1997, he was an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the same institution. Following this, he held the position of professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Chalmers University of Technology from 1997 to 2006. [1] He has served as head for a laboratory at the Biotechnology Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences since 2007. [5] [1]

LightUp Technologies AB

In 1998 Kubista founded LightUp Technologies AB after his research finding of LightUp probes, [6] a company that develops real-time PCR tests for human infectious diseases. [7]

TATAA Biocenter

In 2001, Kubista cofounded TATAA Biocenter, and Care Equity invested in TATAA Biocenter. [8] [9] To facilitate the investment, a new holding company, Bioholdings LP, was established to acquire TATAA. During restructuring connected to TATAA’s COVID-19 testing business, Kubista and his co-founders, advised by a law firm, carried out an upstream merger between two holding entities. This violated a clause in the agreement that prohibited share transfers without written consent. Peter Batesko, General Partner of Care Equity, refused to register the founders' ownership. In June 2023 Batesko dismissed Kubista as CEO and forfeited the founders' shares without compensation. [10] Care Equity's CEO Peter Batesko and companies he controls then sued Kubista, the TATAA founders and their lawyer in what Kubista's lawyer claimed to be a SLAPP lawsuit. [11] As of October 2025, legal proceedings related to the merger dispute remain ongoing in the Swedish courts. [12] Kubista also sued the law firm for negligent advice. [13]

Precision BioAnalytics

In 2025 Kubista together with Jens Björkman, Robert Sjöback and Fredrik Adlercreutz founded Precision BioAnalytics, [14] [15] around a new preanalytical procedure that increases sensitivity and improves precision of the preanalytical process in molecular analysis. [16] [17]

Selected findings and publications

Kubista has close to 300 publications. [18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Academy of Europe: CV". www.ae-info.org. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  2. "GOTEBORGS UNIVERSITET". labgenexp9. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  3. "CHALMERS TEKNISKA HOGSCOLA". labgenexp. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  4. "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2025-12-01.
  5. "Laboratory of Gene Expression homepage". Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  6. 1 2 "Biomolecular Detection and Quantification" (PDF). gene-quantification. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  7. "Mikael Kubista". BioTech Pharma Summit. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  8. Madsen, Christian (2021-09-24). "One of the world's best equipped laboratories for molecular analyses is expanding | Affärstidningen Näringsliv" (in Swedish). Retrieved 2025-10-17.
  9. "TATAA Biocenter to offer GLP services to developers of cell and gene therapies across the world". naringsliv. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  10. Göransson, Av Anders (2024-01-31). "Failed to read the fine print – lost his life's work". Life Science Sweden. Retrieved 2025-03-07.
  11. Johansson, Joakim K. E. (2025-02-19). "Riskkapitalisten tog hans företag: "Isolerad, hotad och stämd"". Realtid (in Swedish). Retrieved 2025-10-27.
  12. "Mikael Kubista - the pioneering entrepreneur who lost ownership of the company he built". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2025-08-20.
  13. Göransson, Anders (2024-12-19). "Partial court victory for entrepreneur who lost his company". Life Science Sweden. Retrieved 2025-11-27.
  14. "CCRM Nordic invests in Precision BioAnalytics". ATMP Sweden. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
  15. Lagercrantz, Av Samuel (2025-04-28). "Mikael Kubista back with new venture after turbulent exit". Life Science Sweden. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
  16. viktorwallen (2025-06-11). "Innovativ metod som förändrar den molekylära analysen". Framtidens forskning (in Swedish). Retrieved 2025-11-06.
  17. "Swedish Company Boosts Molecular Diagnostics for ATMP". ATMP Sweden. Retrieved 2025-12-25.
  18. "Web Of Science".
  19. Sjöback, Robert; Nygren, Jan; Kubista, Mikael (1995). "Absorption and fluorescence properties of fluorescein" . Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy. 51 (6): L7 –L21. Bibcode:1995AcSpA..51L...7S. doi:10.1016/0584-8539(95)01421-P . Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  20. Svanvik, Nicke; Westman, Gunnar; Wang, Dongyuan; Kubista, Mikael (2000). "Light-Up Probes: Thiazole Orange-Conjugated Peptide Nucleic Acid for Detection of Target Nucleic Acid in Homogeneous Solution". Analytical Biochemistry. 281 (1): 26–35. doi:10.1006/abio.2000.4534. PMID   10847607.
  21. Bengtsson, M.; Ståhlberg, A.; Rorsman, P.; Kubista, M. (2005). "Gene expression profiling in single cells from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans reveals lognormal distribution of mRNA levels". Genome Research. 15 (10): 1388–1392. doi:10.1101/gr.3820805. PMC   1240081 . PMID   16204192 . Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  22. Sindelka, Radek; Naraine, Ravindra; Abaffy, Pavel; Zucha, Daniel; Kraus, Daniel; Netusil, Jiri; Smetana, Karel; Lacina, Lukas; Endaya, Berwini Beduya; Neuzil, Jiri; Psenicka, Martin; Kubista, Mikael (2024-10-01). "Characterization of regeneration initiating cells during Xenopus laevis tail regeneration". Genome Biology. 25 (1): 251. doi: 10.1186/s13059-024-03396-3 . ISSN   1474-760X. PMC   11443866 . PMID   39350302.