Keyword: University Communications

City of Turku has entered the competition of re-locating European Medicines Agency.

Finnish and British researchers have revealed how laughter releases endorphins in the human brain. The more opioid receptors the participants had in their brain, the more they laughed during the experiment.

A new Finnish research reveals how brain’s opioids modulate responses towards other people’s pain.

– This has been a really great day. This prestigious celebration, the many traditions and that we were conferred in the year that Finland turns 100 feels like a privilege, said Doctor of Philosophy Annika Adamsson outside the Turku Cathedral. And she was not the only one. Finland 100 celebration was mentioned dozens of times throughout the celebration.

Researchers from Turku have discovered new information about the mechanisms which maintain gene activity in human embryonic stem cells. The observed mechanism is essential for the self-renewal of stem cells. The two research groups who made the discovery, led by Senior Researcher, Docent Riikka Lund and Academy Professor Riitta Lahesmaa, work at the Turku Centre for Biotechnology. The study was conducted in co-operation with researchers from Aalto University, the University of Tampere and Karolinska Institutet.

Global biotechnological company BIOCAD expands its operations to Finland. The company will establish a production line in Turku and begin collaboration with the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University. The partner program covers collaboration in education, fundamental sciences and commercial manufacturing. Total investment over 7 years will exceed €25 million.

Internationally unique Future Food World will be created to Turku, Finland, where researchers can study how consumers choose their food and experience the restaurant visit. – We get to study real life situations where people make choices. Today, consumer research surveys consumers' buying intentions, and the answers are often inconsistent with the actual buying behaviour, says Development Manager Mari Norrdal.

A joint development project by University of Helsinki and University of Turku has been awarded with over 2 million Euros in the Challenge Finland competition. The project is called TEHO adaptive clinical trial design – poised to accelerate approval.

Researchers at the Turku Centre for Biotechnology have invented new tools to decode and control signalling circuits in living cells with flashes of light. In principle, any cellular circuit can now be targeted with their method. Using this approach, they discovered that major biological signalling circuits can be made to resonate when driven at their resonant frequency

Researchers Simo Laakkonen and Timo Vuorisalo from the University of Turku together with their colleague Richard Tucker from the University of Michigan, USA, have edited the first extensive summary with global perspectives on the environmental history of the Second World War.