At the international forefront, Tampere University is developing vaccines to prevent diseases – such as type 1 diabetes, norovirus infections and the pandemic coronavirus – and is researching drug therapies for osteoarthritis and allergies.
Vaccines are considered one of medicine’s greatest achievements. They represent the future of medicine, which is increasingly moving from treating diseases to preventing them. The Covid-19 pandemic has also demonstrated the huge role vaccines play in combating rapidly emerging pandemic threats.
The body’s immune response is a prerequisite for vaccines to be effective. Immune response also plays a key role in the development of many diseases, and immune-modifying therapies are of great significance in the treatment of allergies, arthritis, and many other inflammatory diseases.
The new research centre will be separate from the joint Tampere University and state-owned vaccine research company, which consists of Tampere University’s well-known Vaccine Research Center and Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare’s (THL) commercial vaccine research operations. The vaccine research company is a so-called special-assignment company steered by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
VACCIM and the vaccine research company complement each other’s expertise: VACCIM is MET’s research centre that concentrates on academic scientific research whereas the vaccine research company carries out clinical phase 1–4 vaccine trials in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies.