The document provides an overview of the InFLAMES Research Flagship program at the University of Turku in Finland. Some key points: - InFLAMES brings together over 300 researchers from the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University focused on immunology research. - The program aims to make breakthroughs in drug development, diagnostics, and precision immune medicine through discovery, testing, and utilization of novel immunological findings. - It provides researchers access to high-quality open access research infrastructure facilities like the Turku Bioscience Centre, Turku PET Centre, and Auria Biobank to support both academic and industry collaborations. - Measuring impact, InFLAMES

1. InFLAMES Research Flagship
HealthBIO 2021 – Turku, Finland
September 15, 2021
Timo Veromaa, M.D., Ph.D., eMBA
Professor of Practice, University of Turku

2. Outline of this talk
1. Introduction
2. InFLAMES
3. Open Access Research Infrastructure
5. Turku Success Stories
6. How Can Finland Compete?

3. InFLAMES: Innovation ecosystem
based on the immune system
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InFLAMES in a nutshell
Consortium of University
of Turku and Åbo Akademi
University
50 Group Leaders
29 Professors and 21 Senior
Researchers
Over 300 Researchers
Approx. 70 Doctoral
Candidates
InFLAMES Doctoral Module,
Industrial PhDprogramme
10 Visiting Professors 2 Professors of Practice
Steering Committee and
Scientific and Impact
Advisory Board
High quality research
infrastructure
Unique innovation
network and ecosystem
InFLAMES is Academy of Finland Research Flagship Program

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InFLAMES: Breakthrough science, technology development and innovation
Discovery and identify Test and develop Utilize
Top research in
immunology
Patenting Disease models New treatments
Successful
companies
Healthy patient
• Develops and exploits novel immunological diagnostics and therapies for personalized medicine
• Creates the Finland’s strongest cluster of immunological expertise by establishing Turku Immunology Center
• Brings immunological expertise to the benefit of the businesses sector
• Key objectives: breakthroughs in drug development, diagnostics, and precision immune medicine.

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InFLAMES
Excellence in
the science of
immunology
Business
innovation
ecosystem
Expertise in
patient care

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InFLAMES
Areas of
expertise
•leukocyte differentiation
•immune activation
•leukocyte migration
•humanized mouse models
Immunological
disease modelling
•genomics, transcriptomics,
proteomics
•single cell omics
•bioimaging
•computational tools for data
analyses
Deep
immunoprofiling
•structure-based drug
developmet
•small molecule drugs
•biological drugs
Immunodrug
development
P L A T F O R M S
P I L O T S T U D I E S i n c l u d i n g C L I N I C A L T R I A L S
•diagnosis in inflammation in PET
•novel tools for diagnostic tests
•biomarkers for inflammatory
diseases
•Precision Immune Medicine
(Molecular Immunology Board)
Immunodiagnostics
•new treatments for inflammation
and infections
•future vaccinations
•immuno-oncology
•new targets
Immunotherapy

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Scientific Goals
Breakthrough scientific excellence in immunology
1) Elucidate mechanisms of white blood cell differentiation and trafficking in
cancer and autoimmune diseases
2) Create multiparameter databanks and biobanks of human immunological
organs
3) Develop immunoprofiling and systemic approaches to understand
pathogenesis of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases
4) Develop new diagnostics and therapeutics to fight inflammatory diseases
and cancer

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InFLAMES Research Flagship - Added value
S C I E N C E E C O N O M Y W E L L B E I N G
• Replicate success
• Strebgthen international
cometetitiveness
• Creating the strongest cluster of
immunology in FInland
• Increase visibility of immunology
Organisaatioiden vahvempi
sitouttaminen
• Immunology expertise for business
• Local innovations put to use
• Public-private partnerships optimizing
resourcies
• Attract invest-in activity
• Driver for the domestic new pharma
industry and partner to the National
Drug Development Center
• Improved diagnostics
• Personalized medicine
• New medicines
• Immuno Health for all
• Training of the next
generation (scientists,
industry, population)
InFlames: Engine for the regional knowledge center, where top science strengthens
internationalization, economic growth and healthcare.

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InFLAMES: PhD student & postdoc education
• Tailored training, courses and events
• Facilitated by visiting professors and professors of practice
• Industry postdoctoral program
Find and identify Test and Develop Utilize
Excellence in
Immunology
Patenting Disease models New therapies
Succesful SMEs Healthy patient

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Organization
Steering Group
Industrial
partners
University of
Turku and
Åbo Akademi
City of Turku
University Central
Hospital
PI meetings
and young
investigator’s
forum
Patient
Organizations
Scientific and
Impact Advisory
Board
Support
services
Director Vice Director Vice Director
Sirpa Jalkanen Juhani Knuuti Marko Salmi
Pilots
Laura Airas
Impacts
Anne
Marjamäki
Platforms
Riitta
Lahesmaa
Turun Yliopisto
Platforms
Cecilia Sahlgren
Åbo Akademi
InFLAMES Executive Leadership Team

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What’s new in InFLAMES?
• Professors of Practice (2)
• Visiting professors (10, Europe & US)
• Joint positions in University and industry (50/50)
• Industrial PhD program expanded
• Training and education in industry mindset

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Impact objectives - InFLAMES
1. create an attractive recruitment and training platform for top-international scientists at
all career stages, to set up a new model for public-private partnerships in education an
industrial postdoc program
2. steadily increase the number of invention disclosures and other business ideas, licensing
agreements and the number of start-up companies emanating from the Flagship
research,
3. expand the volume of company agreements by 30 %,
4. introduce > 15 new targets to pre-clinical, 6 to diagnostic trials and 4 to phase I clinical
trials,
5. carry out 15 clinical trials (includes drugs from big pharma),
6. get market approvals for 3 Flagship-based novel diagnostic tests and 2 immunodrugs,
and
7. introduce a new Precision Immune Medicine concept to the Finnish healthcare system

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InFLAMES - Measuring Impact
• We want more of these!
• Contact UTU Innovation Services, Anne Marjamäki
Invention
disclosure
Innovation
proposal
Business proposal,
business idea

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High-quality Open Access Research Infrastructure

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High-quality Open
Access Research
Infrastructure
High-quality Open Access
Research Infrastructure is
behind the InFLAMES success.
Ultramodern and open access
research infrastructure in Turku
Campus is unique and mutually
benefits the academy-industry
collaborations
Central Animal Laboratory
provides services to biomedical research by
supplying and producing laboratory animals.
Turku Bioscience Centre
an advanced core facility and research centre to
facilitate research infrastructure services and
scientific interactions
Turku Bioimaging
provide open access services ranging from
molecular and cellular imaging and high content
analysis to whole animal and human imaging.
offers services to both academic and
commercially-oriented research projects
Turku PET Centre
Combines molecular imaging and clinical research
and is one of the largest and best equipped PET
facilities worldwide
Turku Centre for Disease Modeling
applies and provides state-of-art research
facilities and expertise in studies using
experimental animals
produces custom-based gene-engineered
animals
The Western Cancer Center
Clinical research unit with extensive experience
from Phase 1 through Phase 3 studies
Clinical Research Centre (CRC)
offers support and services for investigator-
initiated clinical studies.
Centre for Population Health Research
coordinates several exceptional long-standing and
internationally recognized population cohorts
linked to national health registries and biobanks

18. • BioCity Turku
– Umbrella organization for life science and
molecular medicine related research at
Univ of Turku and Åbo Akademi University
• Turku Bioscience
– Joint department of University of Turku and
Åbo Akademi, providing high-end
technologies, equipment and expertise for
academic and industrial research
irst-in-human facilities for clinical trials
• TERTTU testbeds services
– Enables co-creation of new solutions with
health care professionals
Examples of Research Infrastructure in
Health Campus Turku…
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Auria Biobank and Auria Clinical Informatics
– First clinical biobank in Finland, targeting on
personalized medicine. Auria Clinical Informatics
provides both research as a service (RaaS) and
secure data analysis platform (DAP) service for
data-driven real-world analysis studies
National PET Centre
– Highly advanced bioimaging for research and
diagnostic purposes
Euro-BioImaging ERIC
– Headquarters and a Node of this European
landmark research infrastructure for biological
and biomedical imaging

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Turku Bioscience Core Facilities

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High-quality Open Access
Research Infrastructure
Turku Bioscience Centre
• an advanced core facility and
research centre to facilitate research
infrastructure services and scientific
interactions
• offers services to both academic and
commercially-oriented research
projects
Functional Genomics
Cell Imaging and Flow
Cytometry
Bioinformatics Single Cell Omics
Proteomics

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High-quality Open Access Imaging Research Infrastructure
The headquarters of
Euro-BioImaging and
leads Euro-BioImaging
Finland
provide open access
services ranging from
molecular and cellular
imaging and high
content analysis to
whole animal and
human imaging.
Combines molecular imaging
and clinical research
one of the largest and best
equipped PET facilities
worldwide with 4 cyclotrons, 26
tracer synthesis hot cells, 8
scanners and nearly 100
different imaging tracers.
employs more than 200 staff
and investigators.
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Auria Biobank
• Hospital integrated biobank
• Owned by the University of Turku and Hospital districts of
Southwest Finland, Satakunta and Vaasa
• Authorized to operate in March 2014
• >200 biobank studies with academic investigators and
pharma and diagnostic industry Oncology
64%
Auria’s biobank projects
(n>200) by disease group in
2014-2020

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Auria biobank’s Offering
• Human biological samples with related real-life clinical data (EHRs) for various
biomedical research purposes
ü Archive of >1,5 M FFPE samples
ü Collection of fresh/frozen tissue samples
ü Tissue microarrays (TMAs) and digipathology
ü Whole blood, plasma, serum, likvor, DNA
• Genotype data
• Algorithm development for text mining
• Deep learning and AI
• Evidence-based feasibility studies for clinical trials
• Recruitment for clinical trials

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Deep clinical real-world data
Auria Biobank’s sample and data
register
Hospital
Electronic
Health
Records
Clinical data
in data lake
Real-world data: Clinical patient data that is
generated in healthcare outside clinical trials
National registers
Biobank studies
• In electronic format ~2004 onwards
• Longitudinal information
• Diagnoses, treatments, outcomes, etc.
• Possible to combine hospital EHRs with biobank specimens
• Data depends on the healthcare processes that created the data:
needs knowledge of local clinicians and other domain experts
• Many concepts are only expressed in patient texts: need domain experts and
text mining
• What kind of operations are done? How they are done? What was
the outcome?

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Finnish Public Biobanks
Health and Social
Data Permit
Authority
Finnish Biobanks
FINBB – a public
biobank
cooperative
Arctic
Biobank

26. Fingenious®
Slide courtesy of Marco Hautalahti

27. Evolving Fingenious® Ecosystem
FOUNDING
UNIVERSITIES
FOUNDING
HOSPITALS
FINNISH
HOSPITAL
DISTRICTS BIOBANKS
STRATEGIC
COLLABORATION
+ Patient, data and sample
finding
+ Study set-up and single
point of contact
+ Data and sample delivery
and analytics
Researchers
Finnish SMEs
Slide courtesy of Marco Hautalahti

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High-quality Open Access Research Infrastructure:
FICANWest - The Western Cancer Center
• FICANWest: clinical research unit with extensive experience from Phase 1 through Phase 3 studies.
• Permanent staff includes six specifically trained and dedicated study nurses, One full-time investigator and ten
PIs/ subinvestigators.
• The center initiates 15-20 new clinical trials on a yearly basis, covering all cancer types. Both sponsored and
academic trials are included; from first-in-man to phase 3 studies, drug trials from basket and umbrella trials to
radiation and quality of life trials.
• Altogether 90 open drug trials and 40 actively recruiting trials ongoing.
• The Center is very active and currently receiving significant interest from sponsors.
• Ethical approval takes about 4 weeks and the center can provide a centralized feasibility process.

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Success stories from
Turku, Finland

31. Networking with impact

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HealthTurku – companies and industry
21 out of the total 22 marketed
drugs originating from Finland
have been developed by companies
operating in Turku
About half of Finland’s pharma and diagnostic industry is
located in Turku.
100+ Life Science companies in the region
ca. 75% of Finnish pharmaceutical exports and
50% of in vitro diagnostics export come from
Turku region
life sciences employ 20% of the industrial
workforce in Southwest Finland
Data courtesy of Turku Business region

33. Turku life-science solutions have global-wide outreach and have an impact
on our everyday lives.
Top expertise in health and well-being
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MIRENA® (Bayer), Finland's largest pharmaceutical export product, was developed
and is produced in Turku. In 2019, Mirena sales amounted to 1 223 M €. (+100
employees in and 35M€ investment program in 2020)
Orion is a globally operating Finnish pharmaceutical company. Orion has
concentrated its early drug discovery functions and its biological & translational
research in Turku. (17M€ investment program in 2020)
Data courtesy of Turku Business region

34. World-Class Diagnostics
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Turku region diagnostics companies are global market leaders e.g. in screening of
newborns and pregnant women, cardiac markers chemicals and blood gas testing.
At PerkinElmer, a pioneer in neonatal screening, a team of 600+ people develops and
produces products that enable screening of 40 million newborns annually in over 100
countries. In total, around 500 million babies have been screened so far. ( 150+ new
employees in 2020)
HyTest is a globally recognized leader in producing antibodies and antigens for the
diagnostic industry. For over 20 years, HyTest has been at the forefront of the
development of reagents for cardiovascular diseases diagnostics.
Radiometer pioneered blood gas testing in 1954. The Turku site focuses on POC
diagnostics: rapid growth in turnover (50M€) and employment (220+).
Data courtesy of Turku Business region

35. • ArcDia Ltd: the mariPOC® platform, rapid POC, CE-registered
• Abacus Diagnostica Ltd: GenomEra, PCR, rapid POC, CE-registered
• Perkin Elmer Wallac: COVID-19 lab test, upscaling production, CE-registered
• HyTest: a series of COVID-19 antibodies and antigens developed, CE-registered
• Aqsense Health Ltd: new non-invasive technology
Turku Life Science Companies on the Frontline of the Fight against
COVID-19
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Data courtesy of Turku Business region

36. Turku Life Science Companies on the Frontline of the
Fight against COVID-19
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Biovian Ltd: company has signed an agreement with a European drug
development company for the initial production of the COVID-19 vaccine preform.
Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd: developing a drug for treating
COVID-19. Approved for fast track. Participating in 2 WHO projects.
VetroSpace Ltd: Modules with antimicrobial surfaces, which filter out up to
99,95 % of particles from the incoming air, corona virus included.
Data courtesy of Turku Business region

37. …but the Finnish Drug Development Center* is sorely missed.
*A.k.a. Lääkekehityskeskus

38. Local Influencers.

39. Everybody
else is doing
it.
Let’s get the
job done!

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How Can Finland
Compete?

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What specifically we have in Finland that’s not easily
available elsewhere?
• Stable society, clean nature, excellent schools, happiest nation!
• Science minded citizens, eager participation in clinical trials, support for Red Biotech
• Everybody speaks English
• Electronic health records, biobanks, highly digital society compared to many others
• Legislation exists to enable developing the digital healthcare
• Social distancing (!), remote working or schooling really not a big deal in Finland in
comparison to almost anywhere else

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So what am I supposed to be doing?
• Strengthen the academia-industry relationship
• Help in recognizing commercial potential of
science
• Offer hands-on practical advice in
commercialization
• Provide been-there-done-that know how
• Mentoring and individual career planning
• Contribute to business training and education on
all levels

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