Ovarian cancer study brought together patients and researchers at Biomedicum
In May, the third floor of the Biomedicum was filled with excited chatter as a group of 40 researchers and patients met at a tour of the laboratory facilities. The theme was ovarian cancer research in honour of the annual Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day on 8 May.
An even larger crowd had gathered a moment earlier, when those who had also participated online were able to hear presentations by Associate Professor Anniina Färkkilä and Prof. Sampsa Hautaniemi on the SPACE and DECIDER projects. During the round table discussion, we also heard from Doc. Johanna Hynninen, Associate Prof. Liisa Kauppi, Doc. Heini Lassus and doc. Anna Vähäraution on research. Participants were interested in topics such as how research relates to patient care, the most promising research directions and HRD testing. Research vocabulary also became more familiar to the participants in the discussion section, as we got definitions for many terms that are part of the everyday language of researchers, such as “clinical trial”, “biomarker” or “serostatus”.
Experienced in a laboratory round
The laboratory tour gave participants a behind-the-scenes look at the daily work of researchers and also gave them the chance to try out for themselves the steps involved in processing samples. The young scientists in the laboratories received special thanks from the participants. Thanks also to those who missed these photos!
Sanna Pikkusaari presented the staining of the samples.-
Participants were able to try pipetting themselves.
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Matilda Salko spoke about organoids, or three-dimensional cell models.
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Participants were introduced to the new Cycif scanner from Färkkilä Lab. Ada Junquera Mencía presented the images obtained with the scanner.
Research is carried out both in the “wet lab” and the “dry lab”. At the points of interest on the dry side, we learned about the training of artificial intelligence under the guidance of Oskari Lehtonen, Shams Salloumi and Yilin Li, among others.
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Oskari Lehtonen, Yilin Li and Shams Salloum talking to participants.
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Xanthoula Karypidou and Matías Marín Falco reported on drug resistance research.
Feedback from the event praised the warm atmosphere. The encounter motivates researchers in their work and gives hope to patients for the development of treatments. Many thanks to all the researchers, every participant on-site and online, and to the Finnish Cancer Patients Association for their cooperation in organising the event!
