Keyword: Press release

Scientists in the FinnBrain research project of the University of Turku discovered that the gut microbes of a 2.5-month-old infant are associated with the temperament traits manifested at six months of age. Temperament describes individual differences in expressing and regulating emotions in infants, and the study provides new information on the association between behaviour and microbes. A corresponding study has never been conducted on infants so young or in the same scale.

The University of Turku has granted the €30,000 Pentti Malaska Futures Award to the Finnish food tech company Solar Foods Oy.

Common and rare SORLA single nucleotide polymorphisms have been associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease. So far, SORLA has been mainly studied in neurons, but the new study focused on the role of SORLA in cancer cells. Led by Academy Professor Johanna Ivaska, the research group observed that SORLA was highly expressed in HER2 positive cancers. Removing SORLA from cancer cells severely impaired the oncogenic fitness of HER2 positive cancers.

Painted by artist, portrait painter Timo Vuorikoski, the portrait was revealed in the Medisiina D building of the University of Turku on 23 May 2019.

Rector of the University of Turku Kalervo Väänänen and Division Director of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Carlos Haddad have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), whose goal is to advance Africa’s sustainable industry, innovations, and infrastructures.

Within a collaboration project of the University of Turku and the University of Namibia, a large tree area is created in Namibia to function as a carbon sink and also to serve the ecological and economic needs of Namibia. The launch of the Carbon Garden project was celebrated at the University of Namibia’s campus in Henties Bay on 10 May 2019. The attendees included the first President of Namibia Sam Nujoma and the current Vice President Nangolo Mbumba.

Children born in Finland who had an immigrant father were two times more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD than those with two Finnish parents, discovered researchers from the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku. Researchers stress that schools and clinicians should become more aware of intergenerational transmission of trauma.

A recent study revealed students at an international school in Finland significantly outperformed U.S. students on tasks which measure digital literacy in social media and online news. The researchers suggest this may be due to the Finnish and International Baccalaureate curricula’s different way of facilitating students’ critical thinking skills compared to the U.S. system and curriculum. The results of this study were published in the Journal of Research in International Education in April.

Turku Centre for Biotechnology, a joint unit of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, celebrating its 30-year anniversary offers technology services and produces top research in biosciences. In honour of the anniversary, the name of the Centre was changed to gain more visibility and to strengthen its position at the heart of technology services in Turku. In the future, the Centre's brand name will be Turku Bioscience – in Finnish, Turun biotiedekeskus. 

The AACSB accreditation is internationally a very highly respected recognition of excellence in business education and research. Turku School of Economics earned the accreditation on 25 April 2019. – With the accreditation, we are among world-class business schools which opens new possibilities especially in the international arena, says Dean Markus Granlund.