Folate-based radiopharmaceuticals can be used in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to detect folate receptors in brain tumours. The discovery of folate receptors and their exploitation potential with respect to brain tumours is a new and significant finding in the field.
Turku can, for a good reason, be called the imaging capital of Finland and even the entire Europe. The city is home to both the headquarters of the Euro-BioImaging research infrastructure and the national Turku PET Centre, one of the continent’s most important medical imaging centres.
Researchers from the Turku PET Centre, Finland, have observed that the length of daylight hours impacts opioid receptor levels in brown fat. When daylight hours shorten, the receptor activity levels elevate. A similar phenomenon also takes place in the brain. Both phenomena help people and animals in the adaptation to seasonal changes.
The new total-body PET scanner has been introduced at the Turku PET Centre. This new generation of medical imaging devices offers novel methods for studying diseases that affect the entire body, not only a single organ. Such diseases include diabetes, coronary artery disease, and multiple sclerosis. For the patient, being able to use the new device means a lower amount of radiation and a shorter scanning time.
InFLAMES (Innovation Ecosystem based on the Immune System) is a Finnish research flagship that aims at identifying novel drug targets using the most modern technological platforms and finding novel diagnostic tools to identify the patients benefitting from personalised therapies.
The preliminary trial results of a novel radiopharmaceutical for PET imaging of inflammation developed at the University of Turku, Finland, have been published. The compound, which targets the vascular adhesion protein 1 (VAP-1) that regulates inflammatory cell traffic, is the first radiopharmaceutical that has been developed completely in Finland and has advanced to clinical trials. In the study that started with healthy volunteers, the radiopharmaceutical was found to be well tolerated and safe.
According to a Finnish study, the structure and function of the brain areas involved in emotions and their regulation are altered in both psychopathic criminal offenders and otherwise well-functioning individuals who have personality traits associated with psychopathy.
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.
Finnish Biomedical Imaging Node FiBI has been accepted as a service-providing Node to the pan-European Euro-BioImaging consortium for imaging technologies. The new Node improves the prerequisites for conducting high quality research and increases the researchers’ opportunities for international collaboration.