IMAGING EXPERTISE IN TURKU

Turku has genuine traditions in imaging research. Over the past few years, Turku has
established outstanding competence in a broad array of imaging areas.

Many of the bioimaging initiatives are collaborative efforts between University of Turku
and Åbo Akademi University. Examples of such highly successful joint facilities are the national PET Centre and the well-established Cell Imaging Core (CIC) at Turku Centre for Biotechnology. Many of the departments at the University of Turku Medical Faculty have traditions in different areas of imaging, including the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy at the Dept. of Pathology. Recently a National Centre for Disease models has been established in Turku. The latter will be a significant asset for many groups working on imaging and will in turn benefit from advanced imaging infrastructure to visualize the different types of disease processes.

The Turku bioscience unit of the State Technical Research Centre (VTT) has a strong emphasis on imaging-based HTS approaches. Furthermore, Turku Centre for Biotechnology hosts in addition to CIC, a national Microarray Centre, which has brought genomic imaging within the reach of many research groups in Turku and elsewhere. The Centre for Biotechnology also has a rapidly growing core unit in proteomics, including mass-spectrometry-based imaging of the proteome and its post-translational modifications.

It should also be noted that Turku has since the early 90's been among the leading cities in the world in development of new optical technologies for microscopy and bioanalytics and some of the results of this research have also been successfully commercialized.
Turku strengths include imaging-related research areas in physics and chemistry and an active community in information science, all of which give a competitive edge to local imaging. Within information science and process technology, there is growing interest in imaging technologies, systems biology, and modelling of cellular processes and bioimaging thus bridges seamlessly with engineering sciences.

Finally, through the different enterprises associated with imaging-oriented research and product development (e.g. Perkin-Elmer Wallac, Turku Imanet, Arctic Diagnostics and many other companies as well as their affiliated contractors) the city has a tradition in commercial production of technologies that relate to imaging.

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