Keyword: Press release

Rector Jukka Kola has appointed Piia Björn, Mika Hannula and Kalle-Antti Suominen as vice rectors.

The Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine (TCSM) of the University of Turku is a multidisciplinary and interactive researcher community for top researchers at the beginning of their career. The Collegium is looking for a maximum of five postdoctoral researchers and five collegium researchers.

Together with local experts, researchers of the University of Turku, Finland, developed a geospatial mapping method for local level land use planning in Tanzania, based on high-resolution satellite images. Involving the local communities and including their needs in the planning process creates sustainable and transparent practice of spatial planning in Tanzania.

An international team of astronomers has used the optical HiPERCAM camera of the Gran Telescopio Canarias in La Palma and NASA’s NICER X-ray observatory aboard the International Space Station to create a video of a growing black hole system at an unprecedented level of detail. The study has increased scientific understanding on the immediate surroundings of black holes.

Researchers have discovered new changes in blood samples which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. A new international study examined Finnish twins. The study was conducted on disease-discordant twin pairs: one sibling who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and one who was cognitively healthy. The researchers utilised the latest genome-wide methods to find out whether the twins’ blood samples had any disease-related differences in chemical marks, so-called epigenetic marks, which are sensitive to changes in environmental and lifestyle factors.

Scientists at the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku have studied the diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps for years. Parasitoid wasps are one of the most species rich animal taxa on Earth, but their tropical diversity is still poorly known. Recently, the research group sampled Afrotropical rhyssine wasps, which are among the largest wasps. Scientists from three countries and research institutes participated in the research which was led by the University of Turku research group.

New study by the University of Turku and Cornell University shows that long-term elimination of herbivorous insects from plants changes the way they communicate with each other. The study focused on Solidago altissima, i.e. tall goldenrod, and indicated that communicating about threats also benefits the plant sharing the information. Different communication strategies between plants can be explained with the differences in the volatile organic compounds the plants release.

Researchers from the Turku Bioscience Centre have found changes in molecules in the blood that might be new markers of type 1 diabetes. The new findings may help understand the early pathogenesis of the disease.

The proportion of young people in Finland diagnosed with depression in specialised services is increasing, showed a study based on an extensive set of national data. An increasing number of adolescents seek and get help, but the increase in service use burdens specialised services. The study was conducted by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku.