Therapeutic strategies based on brain plasticity  - Nordic-Chinese brainstorming meeting
September 11-12. 2017, Shanghai
Nordic Centre and NSFC funded meeting gathered together 40 scientists from Nordic countries and China to discuss brain repair as a possible option to treat diseases with no proper therapy such as stroke.

Finland paves way for memory disorder prevention research
The Finnish FINGER* trial aiming at the prevention of memory disorders provides a leading role model for several new studies carried out around the world. The newly founded World Wide FINGERS (WW-FINGERS) network comprises leading researchers in the field, seeking to find novel approaches to prevent memory disorders based on the promising findings from the FINGER trial. The University of Eastern Finland is one of the main contributors to the FINGER study, which is the first large randomised controlled trial showing that lifestyle interventions can be used to prevent cognitive decline.

New tool to help predict dementia risk in older people
A machine learning method analyzing large amounts of health information has potential in assessing the risk of cognitively healthy older people for later dementia, according to research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The new risk assessment tool also presents the individual risk profile in a quickly interpretable visual form.
“The results of our study are very promising, as it is the first time this machine learning approach was used for estimating dementia risk in a cognitively normal general population,” says the lead researcher, Alina Solomon, MD, PhD, from the University of Eastern Finland. 

Miia Kivipelto receives MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Soprano keeps singing - despite stroke Singing at the opening ceremony of 7^th Kuopio Stroke Symposium, Soprano Kaisa Makkonen is an example of what good treatment and rehabilitation can do for stroke patients today. Having a stroke no longer necessarily means that one has to bury life-long dreams and go into retirement.

7^th Kuopio Stroke Symposium - Program and abstracts

Medical food helped conserve memory in people with prodromal Alzheimer’s disease
"Professor Hilkka Soininen, Professor in Neurology MD, PhD from the University of Eastern Finland, who headed the clinical trial as part of the LipiDiDiet project, said: "Today's results are extremely valuable as they bring us closer to understanding the impact of nutritional interventions on prodromal AD which we are now better at diagnosing but unable to treat due to a lack of approved pharmaceutical options."

"An EU funded trial has found that Souvenaid really does stop the brains of Alzheimer's patients from shrinking" - news from The Telegraph

Significant Horizon 2020 funding for testing cell therapy in stroke patients
"For the first time in the world, a research project funded by the EU will explore the efficacy of cell therapy in stroke patients. The University of Eastern Finland, the University of Tampere and the Kuopio-based CRO Medfiles Ltd. are involved in the RESSTORE consortium that has been awarded 6.3 million euros of Horizon 2020 funding to study adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells in stroke patients."

Nordic Brain Network (NBN) is a research team and collaborative forum. The NBN has increased the resources available to the field of Alzheimer's disease research and promoted collaboration among Nordic countries, with its members primarily working in Sweden and Finland.

Professor Miia Kivipelto was awarded with this year´s Waijlit and Eric Forsgren's prize for distinguished Alzheimer's Researchers

Professor Kivipelto is engaged in various projects related to dementia risk factors and dementia prevention, including the European multinational MIND-AD prevention project, which will start 2016.
 

New approaches to finding treatments for Alzheimer's disease
"The Finnish breakthrough study demonstrating the efficiency of lifestyle counselling and risk factor management in the prevention of memory disorders will be followed by a new intervention, said Professor Miia Kivipelto, speaking in the 7th Kuopio Alzheimer Symposium."