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Neighbourly development for Helsinki University
The University of Helsinki is collaborating closely with other universities in the region on the development of new pharmaceutical methods and products.
Arto Urtti
, a professor of biopharmaceutics at the Faculty of Pharmacy, has received a three-year, 1.5-million-euro grant to establish a new research team at the St. Petersburg State University. The team will set out to develop new materials that facilitate the transport of pharmaceutical agents to the posterior of the eye.
“Our goal is to help drugs penetrate the cells and reach the retina and to prolong the duration of the drugs’ effect through the latest pharmaceutical technology,” says Urtti. “We are using synthetic and biological materials as well as cells to reach our objective.”
The delivery of pharmaceutical agents to the posterior of the eye has been identified as a particular challenge as diseases of the retina have become more common, according to the University of Helsinki.
The collaborative project will also provide an opportunity for researcher exchange between the University of Helsinki and St. Petersburg State University.
The Faculty of Pharmacy is also one of the contributors to Nordic POP, a major interdisciplinary research project on patient-oriented products. NordForsk has awarded the project 4.7 million euros in funding for six years in a bid to establish a scientific foundation for next-generation pharmaceutical products.