Keyword: News

Despite the fact that the shared history of cats and humans is quite long, there has been very little research on cats. Professor of European and World History at the University of Turku Taina Syrjämaa has tackled this issue and, in her research, she sheds light on cats’ lives in Finland in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although the times have changed since then, the relationship between cat and human is also greatly characterised by continuity and similarity. Already in the 19th century, cats were often considered family members.

Several international top conferences will be organised in Turku in the next few years. In collaboration with the City of Turku, the University of Turku will be hosting scientific conferences in different topics, such as plant biology and entrepreneurship.

T helper 17 (Th17) cells belong to a group of T cells with essential functions in autoimmune diseases and inflammation. Regulatory T cells (iTregs) are T cells with a suppressive function to maintain self-tolerance and prevent autoimmune responses. Researchers from Turku Centre for Biotechnology and Aalto University together utilised the advanced technology called label-free quantitative proteomics to identify the proteomes of Th17 and iTreg cells.

The new multidisciplinary research project of the University of Turku, which focuses on the utilisation of big data in territorial policy development, is part of the ESPON research programme. The project is coordinated by the Centre for Collaborative Research of the School of Economics.

It was Turku University Library’s turn to arrange the meeting of about fifty leaders and influential background people of libraries orientated in business and economics in the conference "European Business School Librarians' Group Conference 2018: Libraries Facing the Future" in Turku 29 May –1 June.

​​The participants discussing the libraries of the future in the Manu-hall of BioCity.

The importance of the human brown adipose tissue (BAT) has become clearer during the past ten years. Using functional imaging, positron emission tomography, PET, it was possible to show that adult humans have functional BAT. Coldness is one of the most effective activators of the BAT metabolic function but, in rodents, eating has also been shown to activate BAT. The debate on whether eating has the same effect on humans has lasted for decades. Now, the researchers at Turku PET Centre have proven that having a meal increases oxygen consumption in human BAT to the same extent as coldness.