Keyword: InFLAMES Flagship

What is sustainability within health, diagnostics and drug development? What are the environmental impacts of medication and food? What are the ethical decisions in relation to the cost of medication?

An international team of researchers has discovered how the so-called tertiary lymphoid-like structures can help the human immune defence to find cancer cells and destroy them. Researchers from the InFLAMES research flagship of the University of Turku, Finland, participated in the study and the research article was published in the esteemed Cancer Cell journal.

The first few months and years of life are crucial to the development of the human immune system. This is an important phase as the immune system can define which diseases individuals might develop later in life. INITIALISE, a joint research project of ten universities, will study which environmental factors and mechanisms modify the human immune system in early life and whether targeted interventions could have a positive impact. The project obtained nearly seven million in funding from Horizon Europe. 

The Hospital District of Southwest Finland has chosen the Turku Immunology Centre as its unit of excellence. The Centre, which was established at the end of 2021, was also selected to the Roadmap for Research Infrastructures of the University of Turku.

New discovery on the causes of PAP lung disease can also offer solutions for treating obesity and heart disease. The research group of Associate Professor Alexander Mildner at the University of Turku, Finland, identified a genetic defect that causes the accumulation of lipids in the pulmonary alveoli.  

There are approximately 40 trillion cells in the human body and every one of them needs oxygen to survive. If the oxygen level drops, the cells must be able to sense the change and adapt to it. Sir Peter Ratcliffe discovered how this adaptation occurs. The discovery earned Ratcliffe and his associates the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019. Ratcliffe visited the University of Turku 25 August.