The InFLAMES Flagship of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University has invited four recognised experts in their fields as visiting professors. The expertise in the Flagship will be strengthened by Professor Petter Brodin, Professor Sarah Coupland, Dr Simon Goodman, and Professor Reijo Salonen. Their terms will last until the end of 2024.
Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, showed that the antibody treatment reactivates the immune defense in patients with advanced-stage cancer. The treatment alters the function of the body’s phagocytes and facilitates extensive activation of the immune system.
The InFLAMES Research Flagship (Innovation Ecosystem based on the Immune System) and its first selection process for postdoctoral researcher positions has been completed. Four postdoctoral researchers have been selected by the InFLAMES Executive Team. They will strengthen InFLAMES research groups of immunological research.
Although vaccination programmes against pertussis are very effective in Europe, new Finnish study shows that the disease is still very common among middle-aged adults in various European countries. At the same time, the results show that the disease is underdiagnosed as the annually reported figures are considerably lower than those discovered in the study.
The annual BioCity Symposium is in August 19th–20th with the title Cancer – Breaking Bad. This series of meetings organized since 1991 has become the most important annual get-together in the fields of biosciences and molecular medicine in Turku. The symposium gathers together hundreds of participants each year and offers talks from cutting-edge international researchers.
A Finnish study coordinated by the Research Centre of Applied and Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Turku shows that exposure to cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, elevated serum cholesterol, and obesity, from childhood to midlife are associated with poor cognitive performance in midlife. Importantly, the worse the cardiovascular risk factor profile and the higher the number of the risk factors was, the poorer cognitive performance was observed.
The joint InFLAMES Flagship of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University has invited four top-level visiting professors to strengthen the initiative. The position of visiting professor at the University of Turku has been granted for the period of 1 April 2021–31 December 2024 to Professors Mark Ansel, Janne Lehtiö and Lawrence Steinman as well as to Director Teng-Leong Chew.
The research and development initiative ‘Innovation Ecosystem Based on the Immune System (InFLAMES)’ has received significant funding from the Academy of Finland.
A recent study from Finland reports that a protein kinase called LRRK2 is hyperactive in skin samples from Parkinson’s disease patients which leads to a decrease in protein synthesis. This new finding could help in the development of new treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
The University of Turku has entered into a licensing agreement with an international pharma company related to targeting of CIP2A oncoprotein.