Mikael Kubista (born 13 August 1961) is a Czech-born Swedish chemist and entrepreneur who works in the field of molecular diagnostics. Since 2007, he is serving as a professor of chemistry and head of the Department of Gene Expression Profiling at the Biotechnology Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic.
Kubista has contributed to the field of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), with his work recognized as part of the early research in this area.[1]
Early life
Kubista was born to his medical doctor father in the former Czechoslovakia in 1961.[2] His father received a scholarship and relocated to Sweden. At the age of 7 in 1968, Kubista went to Sweden to visit his father. However, on that very day, Russia invaded Czechoslovakia in the so called Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia,[3] and as a result, the family decided to stay making Sweden their new home.
Kubista began his academic career in 1991 as an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology.[9] 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.[9][10]
Entrepreneurial activities
TATAA Biocenter starting to give the first COVID Tests
In 1998 Kubista founded LightUp Technologies AB after his research finding of lightUp probes,[11] a company that develops real-time PCR tests for human infectious diseases.[12][13] In 2001, Kubista's founded TATAA Biocenter.[12][14][13] TATAA Biocenter accepted financing from Care Equity in 2021.[14][15][16][17][18]
Kubista's research led to the establishments of MultiD Analyses AB, which develops GenEx software for gene expression data analysis. In 2020, Kubista co-founded SimSen Diagnostics, a company focused on developing technology for liquid biopsy analyses.[7][8][19][20]
In 2024, he co-founded HotSpot Diagnostics with professors Erik Lekholm and Anders Ståhlberg around a new cancer biomarker and the Uniprobe.[21][22]
In 2025, Kubista founded Precision BioAnalytics.[23][24]
TATAA Biocenter
In 2021, Care Equity, controlled by investor Peter Batesko, partnered and invested in TATAA Biocenter.[25][14][26] 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 carried out an upstream merger between their holding entity and a newly formed company which violated a clause in the agreement that prohibited share transfers without written consent. Kubista proceeded with the merger, leading to his dismissal as CEO in June 2023 and Care Equity forfeiting the founders' shares without compensation.[27][28] Peter Batesko and companies he controls has sued Mikael Kubista, TATAA founders and their lawyer in what is claimed to be aggressive SLAPP.[29] As of October 2025, legal proceedings related to the merger dispute remain ongoing in the Swedish courts.[30][31]
Precision BioAnalytics
Kubista and the expert team behind Tataa Biocenter are embarking on a new venture, starting Precision BioAnalytics in 2023,[32][33] with seed financing from the Swedish infra-structure CCRM-Nordic.[34][35]
Advisory roles and memberships
Kubista holds several positions and advisory roles within the scientific and biotechnology communities including: Roche, ThermoFisher, Qiagen, Bio-Rad, and RealSeq Biosciences.[36][37][38][39] He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of Genetic Engineering News.[40][41]
Kubista has also been involved in the establishment of modern molecular diagnostics in developing countries. Since 1999, he has served as an advisor to UNESCO, providing guidance and assistance to countries such as: Libya,Egypt, Iran, Grenada, and Ghana.[8]
Kubista is an expert advisor for the European Commission Research Directorate General. Kubista advises the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and is part of the scientific advisory board for the International Biotechnology Research in Tripoli, Libya, under UNESCO.[42][10][43]
Selected findings and publications
Two-tailed schematic
Studied and identified chromophores and a variety of dyes commonly used as biomolecule labels like: tryptophan, DAPI, fluorescein,[44] thiazole orange, and BEBO.[45][11]
Applying Widlund experiment, identified specific nucleosome positioning sequences.[12]
1 2 danielduran.cz, Design: Martin Kolerus, Code: Daniel Duran. "prof. Dr. Mikael Kubista, Ph.D."biocev.eu. Biocev. Retrieved 2023-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ 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. PMID10847607.
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