Keyword: Institute of Biomedicine

Despite of continuous development in breast cancer treatments, metastases of the most aggressive breast cancer types are still a significant and growing medical problem. Together with a research group at Michigan University, the group of Professor Jukka Westermarck at Turku Bioscience Centre recently received funding from the US Department of Defense for the development of novel treatment strategies for breast cancer metastases.

The virologists at the University of Turku have followed the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus closely since the beginning of the year. Laboratories in Turku received the first genes of the new virus in February and, ever since, researchers have strived to solve the mysteries of the pathogen only the size of 120 nanometres.

World leading diabetes research foundation JDRF from the United States has granted the University of Turku three-year funding for its PAMP project (Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns) with the total sum of over €520,000.  

Infectious disease scientists identified strains of group A streptococcus that are less susceptible to commonly used antibiotics, a sign that the germ causing strep throat and flesh-eating disease may be moving closer to resistance to penicillin and other related antibiotics known as beta-lactams.

Finnish researchers have identified an exonic variant in the TRIM55 gene, which affects cardiomyocyte specific functions and reduces cardiac contractility. 

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.

The University of Turku has 26 different Master’s Degree Programmes taught in English. They cover a broad range of different subjects from health and biomedical sciences to social sciences. Students in the international Programmes of the University come from around the world and they have various different backgrounds.

With the help of new technology, the researchers of the University of Turku have gained more detailed information on the diversity of the human lymphatic system than before. The research results can help to understand the human defence mechanisms on the molecular level even better than before. Several cancers, such as breast cancer and head and neck cancers, spread primarily via the lymphatic system.

The 11th European meeting on Intermediate Filaments (EUROIF2019), organized by scientist and medical doctors at Åbo Akademi University and the University of Turku, brings together over 100 international experts in biology, biochemistry and medicine to Turku, June 8-11, 2019. 

According to a new research, circulating tumor DNA can be used to detect treatment options for ovarian cancer patients who don’t benefit from chemotherapy.