Research Infrastructure

In addition to research units, the Faculty of Medicine's research is also integrated into several research centers and research infrastructures, cohort studies and biobanks.

Research centers and infrastructures

Medical Research Center Oulu (MRC Oulu) is a strategic research organisation of the Wellbeing services county of North Ostrobothnia and the University of Oulu. MRC Oulu offers a multidisciplinary research environment for clinical, translational and health care socioeconomic research. Currently MRC Oulu comprises around 80 research groups from the University of Oulu, Oulu University Hospital, and Northern Finland collaborative area.

Northern Finland Cohorts comprise collections of data and biological samples from large population studies that are administrated by the Infrastructure for Population Studies at the Medical Faculty, University of Oulu.

The Infrastructure for Population Studies at the Faculty of Medicine manages large data and sample collections as part of the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts – Research program for health and well-being and the sample collection at Arctic Biobank.

The Arctic Health (AH) research group focuses on climate change and human health and well-being in the Arctic. The main theme in research is One health approach, including research ethics and community participation.

Arctic Biobank – University of Oulu was established in 2020 to host large population-based sample collections from Northern Finland.

Biobank Borealis was established by Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, the University of Oulu, NordLab and the hospital/healthcare districts of Lapland, Länsi-Pohja, Central Ostrobothnia and Kainuu.

DigiHealth Hub, in collaboration with Digital Health research programme and OuluHealth ecosystem, supports digital transformation in the health and wellbeing sector by providing access to the latest knowledge, scientific expertise, technology and easy entry to innovation ecosystems and multi-partner cooperation (regional, national, international).

Centre for Health and Technology (CHT) is innovating connected health solutions together with researchers and entrepreneurs.

Translational cell biology core at Kontinkangas campus provides comprehensive service and training for flow cytometric analysis and sorting.

Kontinkangas Campus Infrastructure for Biomedical Research provides open access equipment, services, technical help, and scientific expertise for various technologies in biomedicine for conducting high-quality research. Biomedical research infrastructures are offered by the BCO Core Facilities, Faculty of Medicine, and Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and are available in different application areas; in vivo models, biological imaging, clinical cohorts, bio- and databanks, molecular and cell biology, and in vitro technologies.