Blood Service joins the project to develop medical research

The research project focuses particularly on medical research supporting cancer treatment. The project combines top research in the fields of biomedicine and modeling and strongly utilizes the opportunities brought by artificial intelligence. Joint project is part of the Orion Veturi research ecosystem project and the broader Business Finland Health 360 program.

“The project is highly research-oriented and has international novelty value. The joint project promotes collaboration between companies and research institutions and is expected to have significant impacts on the development of companies’ competitiveness and new business opportunities internationally. Additionally, the project advances the green transition in drug development,” says Outi Tuovila from Business Finland.

Blood Service’s biobank supports research on safe treatments

Blood Service continuously develops its operations to meet the changing care needs of patients and supports the research and development of new, safe treatments in Finland.

The immunogenotyped blood donor samples from Blood Service’s biobank offer a unique and responsible opportunity for medical research. The samples selected based on genotype and the standardized test setups help develop cell models needed in medical research. The use of human cell models can also in the future reduce the need for animal testing, for example.

Virtual methods improve the chances of success

The development of a new drug is a long-lasting, expensive, and often risky process. In the DATA-INDUCTOR project, artificial intelligence models based on existing and new data and machine learning are built, which are needed in drug development. With the help of artificial intelligence, drug development can proceed faster and more reliably in the right direction, so that not everything necessarily needs to be analyzed through laboratory tests.

However, artificial intelligence needs data produced with reliable models as a basis. These models are developed in the DATA-INDUCTOR project together with leading experts participating in the project.

The budget for the three-year DATA-INDUCTOR project is approximately 5 million euros, of which Business Finland’s funding share is about half.  The project involves the universities of Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, and Eastern Finland, as well as Experimentica Oy, Faron Pharmaceuticals Oy, BioNavis Oy, SCHOTT Primoceler Oy, and Orion Pharma.

More information: Project coordinator, Product Development Manager Saara Laitinen, saara.laitinen@veripalvelu.fi