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New Molecular Medicine Research Centre to be located within the University of Helsinki

31/03/2006

In the second week of March, Finland’s Ministry of Education announced that it will assign the task of preparing the administrative structure and functional organisation of a new research centre for molecular medicine, genetics and epidemiology to the University of Helsinki. The decision follows a proposal made last autumn by the ministry’s Biotechnology 2005 group that an international facility of this type should be established in Finland.

According to a ministry statement, utilising the competence of the Turku Centre for Biotechnology and cooperating with other biocentres - Biocentrum Helsinki, the Institute of Biotechnology/University of Helsinki, Biocity Turku, Biocenter Oulu, the Institute of Medical Technology/University of Tampere and the A.I.Virtanen Institute/ University of Kuopio - and with other actors in the sector will be essential in both preparations for the new centre and its operation.

Commenting on its decision,  the ministry said that the University of Helsinki was chosen as the location for the new research centre because of its extensive, internationally top-level research in all the fields to be covered by the new centre. The ministry also said that the Finnish Genome Center hosted by the University of Helsinki will “further intensify the new centre’s operations and profile”, and that the University of Helsinki also has the prerequisites to create an internationally-appealing research environment with an adequate critical mass.

Part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory

According to an article in the Metro section of Helsingin Sanomat’s international edition, the new centre will become part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) network and will also have connections with other Nordic research institutes. Annual running costs of the new centre are expected to total EUR 10 million.

Quoted in the Helsingin Sanomat article, Marja Makarov PhD, Vice Rector of the University of Helsinki, said “Now we can bring together research in the fields of molecular medicine, genetics, and epidemiology. We have brilliant individual researchers, but we’ve lacked an internationally recognised multi-disciplinary research body.” Kari Alitalo MD, PhD, Academy Research Professor in the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine, said “Biomedicum II is about to be completed. This will be the icing on the cake. We should be able to set up the EMBL local laboratory in the new building.”

Biomedicum Helsinki

Launched in 1995 as an initiative by the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital, the Biomedicum Helsinki project was carried out in broad cooperation between the University of Helsinki, the Joint Authority for the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS), Senate Properties, the cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa, the National Public Health Institute and a number of private research institutes and businesses.

Construction of the Biomedicum Helsinki building was completed in January 2001. Currently, more than 1,200 people in the facility are engaged in research, and the first two years of the undergraduate curriculum of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine are taught on the premises. Biomedicum II is being constructed on the same site in the district of Meilahti and is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Further information:

Ministry of Education press release: http://www.minedu.fi/minedu/news/pr/2006/molecular_medicine.html

Biomedicum Helsinki: http://www.biomedicum.fi/default.asp?intSiteID=2

Biomedicum II: http://www.biomedicum.fi/document.asp?intSiteID=2&intDocID=476(click on the link “A Medical Business Center to Helsinki”)

Helsingin Sanomat article: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Molecular+medicine+centre+to+open+in+Helsinki+/1135219125696