Keyword: Press release

Doctoral Candidate Tapani Hopkins collected over 100,000 parasitoid wasps from the tropical forest of Uganda during his doctoral dissertation. Current results suggest that there is a diverse parasitoid wasp fauna still awaiting discovery in tropical Africa. His dissertation defence on rhyssine wasp species, their ecology, and how their diversity compares to Amazonia will be held online. Questions are welcome after the event.

A Finnish research group has studied how seasons influence the function of the brain. Researchers at the Turku PET Centre showed that the length of daylight affects the opioid receptors, which in turn regulates the mood we experience.

The University of Turku and Bayer have signed a strategic partnership agreement with the objective to strengthen and develop co-operation in research and education in different fields.

The FinnBrain research of the University of Turku has demonstrated for the first time that the stress the father has experienced in his childhood is connected to the development of the white matter tracts in the child’s brain. Whether this connection is transmitted through epigenetic inheritance needs further research.

Recently published research has indicated that folate receptor targeting therapy constrains inflammation in inflammatory demyelinating central nervous system lesions and may inhibit progression of the disease in animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). This research has been conducted in co-operation with Turku PET Centre, Purdue University and Endocyte Inc (now part of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, NIBR).

The properties of human mind affect the quality of scientific knowledge through the insertion of unconscious cognitive biases. Scientists from the University of Turku, Finland, have found that the current level of awareness about research biases is generally low among ecology scientists. Underestimation of the risks associated with unconscious cognitive biases prevents avoiding these risks in a scientist’s own research. Due to unconscious origin of biases, it is impossible to combat them without external intervention.

SORLA is a protein trafficking receptor that has been mainly studied in neurons, but it also plays a role in cancer cells. Professor Johanna Ivaska’s research group at Turku Bioscience observed that SORLA functionally contributes to the most reported therapy-resistant mechanism by which the cell-surface receptor HER3 counteracts HER2 targeting therapy in HER2-positive cancers. Removing SORLA from cancer cells sensitised anti-HER2 resistant breast cancer brain metastasis to targeted therapy.

Exposure to antibiotics in the first days of life is thought to affect various physiological aspects of neonatal development. A new study conducted in Turku, Finland, reveals that antibiotic treatment within 14 days of birth is associated with reduced weight and height in boys, but not girls, up to the age of six.

The application to the University’s international Master’s degree programmes was open on 7–20 January 2021. 13 Master's degree programmes were open for application and the University received a record number of applications, altogether 1,985.

A new study conducted at the University of Turku shows that patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder have an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease later in life. The increased risk may be due to alterations in the brain’s dopamine system caused by dopamine receptor antagonists or neurobiological effects of schizophrenia.