Research Organisations

The University of Helsinki has centralized its operations on four major campus areas, namely the city center, Kumpula, Meilahti and Viikki. The Biomedicum building, completed in early 2001, was the final stage in the process of concentrating medical sciences to the Meilahti Campus, which now offers top-level facilities for research and training in medicine.

The Biomedicum Helsinki building houses the following units of the Faculty of Medicine: 
Medicum (Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Clinical and medical genetics, Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Clinical Pharmacology, Developmental biology, Pharmacology, Physiology) and Clinicum.

The research laboratories of Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases are also located in the Biomedicum building. The teaching and conference facilities on the ground floor, which are normally used in the teaching of first and second-year medical and dental students, may be rented for various types of seminars, symposia and conferences.

Collaboration between basic scientists and clinical investigators is facilitated by the five Research Programs that have been selected by peer review for five years. The programs report to the director of Biomedicum Helsinki. There are investigators from the University of Helsinki, HUS, National Public Health Institute and Folkhälsan Research Center in these programs. The current research programs are Genome-Scale Biology, Immunobiology, Molecular Neurology, Translational Cancer Biology and Diabetes and Obesity.

At HUS Helsinki University Hospital about 680 000 patients receive medical care every year. We have almost 27,000 professionals working for the best of all patients. We are responsible for organizing specialized healthcare in the Uusimaa region. In addition, the treatment of many rare and severe diseases is nationally centralized to HUS. 

HUS is Finland’s biggest health care provider in Finland. Our expertise is internationally recognized and accredited. As a university hospital, we continuously develop and evaluate our treatment methods and activities. 

In the autumn of 2006, the University of Helsinki, the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) and the National Public Health Institute founded the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland. The purpose of this institute is to generate new knowledge and innovations on disease-causing mechanisms in order to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases and promote public health. It utilizes Finnish clinical and epidemiological material in its research work. The aim is to assemble research and infrastructure in the fields of molecular medicine, genetics and epidemiology within a major, internationally recognized unit which strengthens and internationalizes the related research and researcher training and accelerates the utilization of research results. The institute, to which the Finnish Genome Center has been attached, will mainly operate from the Biomedicum Helsinki 2 building. It will network with its Swedish and Norwegian counterparts and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). The institute’s operations are supported by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, the City of Helsinki, the Sigrid Jusélius Foundation, Orion Corporation and the Finnish Medical Foundation. Other central biomedical universities and research organizations have the opportunity to join the institute.

HiLIFE Helsinki Institute of Life Science is a new institute established in 2017 that supports high quality life science research across the University campuses and faculties. HiLIFE builds on existing strengths and new recruits and partnerships to create an attractive international environment for researchers to solve grand challenges in health, food, and environment. HiLIFE coordinates research infrastructures in life sciences and provides research-based interdisciplinary training.

Folkhälsan Research Center was founded in 1996 by Samfundet Folkhälsan i svenska Finland r.f. and Folkhälsan Research Foundation. The Center conducts medical research and engages in research and teaching cooperation with the University of Helsinki on the basis of a separate agreement. The Research Center is divided into three units. The research performed by the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Institute of Genetics aims at determining the molecular background of hereditary diseases. The Institute of Preventive Medicine, Nutrition, and Cancer focuses especially on examining the significance of plant estrogens for preventing chronic diseases that typically afflict the population of Western countries. The Diabetics Research Program studies the genetic background of the pathogenesis and complications related to juvenile- and adult-onset diabetes.

The Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research is a private research laboratory maintained by the Minerva Foundation. The Institute employs about 30 persons, including researchers, graduate students and support staff. Research is conducted on the following five areas: clinical physiology, diabetes, nephrology, cell physiology and biochemistry.

The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service conducts scientific research and development related to its current and future operating areas. The Department of Research and Development is located at the Biomedicum Helsinki campus area.

The focus areas of Research and Development activities of the Blood Service are defined in its Research Strategy. The areas are the following: blood supply chain – from blood donors via blood products to patient transfusion – and cell therapy and histocompatibility research. Over 30 individuals, from students to professor-level senior scientists, are working at the Department. The research projects on blood cell derived extracellular vesicles and cell therapy are strongly founded on molecular and cell biology, whereas blood donor and histocompatibility research projects rely on modern data mining and modelling.

The scientists of the Blood Service publish annually 20-30 scientific papers. About half of the research funding comes from sources outside the Blood Service budget.

The Research Fund of the Blood Service grants annually funding to scientific projects supporting the Blood Service Research strategy and conducted outside the Blood Service.

Wihuri Research Institute (WRI) is a non-profit biomedical research institute. The research program in the Wihuri Research Institute is focused on the vascular system in various diseases – such as cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and cancer. The mission of the Institute is to achieve new fundamental understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of the vascular system, in order to improve the treatment of various diseases.