Our services for academic collaborators

Researcher-driven clinical trials

The Brain Research Unit offers clinical expertise for academic research into neurological diseases and supports the planning, implementation and reporting of research. The unit can also help researchers make protocols/research plans and prepare ethics committee permission processes. We are happy to carry out academic research as collaborative research or service research in certain parts.

Our services include:

Recruitment of research subjects – read more below
Scheduling and organisation of research visits
Implementation of clinical research procedures specific to research protocols:
- Research nurse/doctor reception
- Sampling (such as blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples, skin biopsies) and processing
- Measurements (ECG, spirometry, blood pressure, etc.)
- Cognition testing and other assessments by research psychologists
- Drug administration
- Coordination of imaging studies: regarding structural imaging, we cooperate with the KUH Imaging Center or private service providers; isotope imaging in cooperation with KUH Imaging Center
- Patient participation in research projects (patient and public involvement (PPI) entities)
- Data collection and storage (eCRF)
Measures related to the conclusion of studies, e.g. handing over the research materials to the research client and closing and archiving the research
Research administration: pricing, budgeting, financial monitoring and invoicing, research ethics and contractual services

In connection with the unit, there is an accredited Biomarker Laboratory, which is the only diagnostic laboratory in Finland that performs Alzheimer’s disease marker analysis of cerebrospinal fluid and plasma neurofilament analytics.

Services and operations are actively developed through the ongoing UEF Brain Research Unit 2.0 ERDF development project (2023–2025), among other things.

We can customize the service package as needed. Contact us and ask!

Further information

Director of the Brain Research Unit
Eino Solje, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Neurologist and Assistant chief physician
Phone +358 50 56505 98
E-mail: bru@uef.fi

Read more about recruiting participants for research

Our academic research projects

We are involved in several research and development projects of the Neurology / Institute of clinical medicine. Get to know our research groups and their projects by clicking the links below.

Examples of Our Research Projects

Academic Studies of Professor Alina Solomon

AD-RIDDLE is an EU-funded consortium bringing together 24 public and private leaders from across Europe. The project aims to bridge the gap between research and precision medicine to help people better understand what they can do to mitigate and slow down cognitive decline. The goal of the AD-RIDDLE project is to revolutionize the detection, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of AD across healthcare settings. The project will introduce a toolbox platform concept, offering validated tools at each critical step. This approach enables healthcare settings and practitioners to effectively manage enhanced AD care across diverse patient populations.

PROMINENT The research project will create a digital platform for precision medicine to improve the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The goal is to help clinicians with individualized decision support, increase diagnostic accuracy, and optimize the use of current and new treatment options.

2D-BioPAD is a pioneer in the graphene-based Point-of-Care In-Vitro Diagnostics system for detecting early Alzheimer’s disease. This non-invasive solution, using 2D materials, aims to quantify up to five AD blood biomarkers in real time. Clinical pilot studies are conducted in Finland, Greece and Germany.

Multi-MeMo The study explores more in-depth lifestyle-based multimodal interventions that have already been successfully tested in clinical trials on elderly individuals identified as at-risk. The study is intended to combine studies of molecular, in-vitro and in-vivo models with studies in humans.

FINGER (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) is a multi-center, randomized, controlled trial ongoing in Finland (2009–2030). FINGER-research has shown that by changing lifestyles to be healthier, older people can reduce the risk of memory disorders and retain memory and thinking functions.

World Wide Fingers (WW-FINGERS) is a multidisciplinary network that shares experiences, harmonizes data and designs joint international initiatives to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment or dementia.

CAIDE is a population-based cohort study (1998-2022) that studied the potential role of changing risks and protective factors in the development of dementia. The results of the CAIDE study provided information on a number of risk and protective factors for dementia, including genetics and lifestyle interactions. Based on these findings, the CAIDE Dementia Risk Score was developed, the first validated tool for predicting the risk of late-stage dementia in the general population based on lifestyle cardiovascular disease risk factors in middle age.

University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio (Finland)
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, Helsinki (Finland)
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden)
FINGERS Brain Health Institute, Stockholm (Sweden)
Imperial College, London (UK)

Updated 6.9.2024