Tissue Cure Alliance Finland is a non-profit community for Finnish tissue regeneration and wound care companies and research organisations. The Alliance offers access to specialized knowledge and expertise and enables participants to expand their professional network. Sharing experiences and best practises is at the heart of the Alliance. In addition, the Alliance aims at promoting and marketing the products and solutions provided by its members.
The Alliance acts as a platform for people and organisations in the field to meet and exchange knowledge and experience. In its role as facilitator and enabler, the Alliance arranges scientific seminars, networking and promotional events.
Members present their products and solutions under the common brand of the Alliance.
Finland’s high level of education, public sector research funding and science and technology policies that emphasize Finland’s own national expertise have created the preconditions for a high-tech success story.
The Alliance was founded in 2018 by Finnish start-up companies Askel Healthcare Oy, CutoSense Oy, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, UPM Biomedicals and Åbo Akademi University.
By 2024 the global wound care market is expected to reach $25bn (~€21bn), according to market research firm MarketsandMarkets™ – a growth it attributes to an increasing prevalence of chronic and acute wounds, a rising number of road traffic accidents, a rapidly ageing population, a greater interest in wound care research, and a growing awareness of wound care treatment and management.
Askel Healthcare Oy
Kuortaneenkatu 2
00520 HELSINKI
e-mail: firstname.lastname @ askelhealthcare.com
Oy Konfer Ab
Uudenmaankatu 1 A
20500 TURKU
e-mail: firstname.lastname @ tissuecure.fi
Cartilage-related problems are the most frequently encountered problems orthopaedic surgeons face in their practice. Despite the prevalence of the problem, there are no treatments available for restoring and maintaining the original functionality of the tissue. Whatever the cause, cartilage destruction consistently results in pain and lameness, adversely affecting the lifestyle and activity levels of the afflicted.
The scientific team at Askel Healthcare has developed a medical device, called the COPLA® Scaffold, providing for the first time in the world the almost unhealable tissue with the capacity to heal.
For more information please visit
www.askelhealthcare.com
The company continues to cooperate with universities and the latest research. CutoSense Oy was founded in 2016 after long scientific research resulting in a joint project with Tekes (a govermental organisation).
Our solution for chronic wounds, WoundWatch™ is a treating and monitoring solution.
The system has been clinically tested at Tampere University Hospital on patients with chronic lower-limb ulcers. The mapping functionality was found to accurately depict actual changes in wound status. The possibility to minimise the need for dressing removals and visual inspection as a follow-up procedure allows for significant cost-savings and reduced discomfort for patients.
We are now productising WoundWatch™ to gain the CE-certification in H1 2021.
For more information please visit
www.cutosense.fi
Finnadvance is bridging the gap between in-vitro and in-vivo research. With industry leading throughput microphysiological culture platforms, complex in vivo biomechanical cues are mimicked on the in vitro cultures. Our flagship barrier-on-chip platform allows for robust blood-brain-barrier formation, providing permeability assessment for small molecule, micro/nanoformulations and cell therapies. Our organoid-on-chip platform has been upgraded to generate and culture organoids under perfused conditions, allowing for immuno-oncological studies on chip. Our first and most widely adopted vasculature-on-chip platform has won EU Horizon 2020 funding.
For more information please visit: www.finnadvance.fi
The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (FRCBS) is the nationwide blood service provider in Finland and our main task is to provide the Finnish hospitals with various blood products for treating patients. We also offer hospitals laboratory services, such as blood group testing and laboratory tests related to organ, tissue and stem cell transplantations and blood coagulation. The FRCBS is also active in the cell therapy field and hosts the Advanced Cell Therapy Centre with its GMP facilities for the development and manufacturing of novel cell therapy products. Hosting the Finnish Stem Cell Registry, the Blood Service Biobank and the Finnish Hematological Registry and Biobank is also part of our tasks. Research is conducted on operative areas of the FRCBS, in particular transfusion medicine and cell and tissue therapies, and we produce approx. 30-40 scientific publications each year. We are a not-for-profit organisation, and our prime concern is what is best for the patient.
For more information please visit
www.bloodservice.fi
UPM Biomedicals develops and supplies innovative and sustainable wood-based biomedical products for a variety of uses.
UPM Biomedicals is a leader in sustainable bio-based products, providing innovative tools and technology to Life Science and Clinical professionals to advance healthcare globally. Our products prepared from Birch wood pulp have been proven to be highly biocompatible with human cells and tissues. Current products include; GrowDex® hydrogel range for 3D cell culture with >150 assay protocols available, and GrowInk(tm) bioink range for 3D bioprinting suitable for use with any printer for applications such as tissue engineering. Our latest innovation FibDex® is an advanced one-time application wound dressing designed for efficient healing, patient comfort providing improved vascularity and skin quality.
For more information please visit
UPM Biomedicals – www.upmbiomedicals.com
Åbo Akademi University – high-level research in life sciences, materials and technologies for health
Åbo Akademi University’s strategy, “Åbo Akademi – breaking boundaries”, for the years 2015–2020 is the profiling of research within our strongest fields. A central aspect within two of these interrelated research profiling areas, Molecular Process and Material Technology and Drug Discovery and Diagnostics (DDD) aim to develop new advanced materials and technologies for health. Further, collaboration between DDD and the Minority profiling area will address societal and ethical issues related to patient care, utilization of medical information as well as research results. The DDD Platform is a joint research profiling area of the University of Turku and ÅAU, since drug discovery, development and diagnostics have a long history and a broad knowledge-base in Turku. ÅAU has internationally high-level expertise in research areas relevant to the DDD profiling area: pharmaceutical sciences, molecular cell biology, biochemistry, computer-aided drug discovery and drug design, chemistry, physics and material sciences. The two Universities have for decades worked closely together to develop cutting-edge infrastructure for biomedical research. Prime examples of this are the joint biocentre, BioCity Turku (www.biocity.turku.fi), and two special independent departments, the Turku Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Centre (www.turkupetcentre.fi) and the Turku Centre for Biotechnology (www.btk.fi), which provide state-of-the art infrastructures to the entire Turku research community. In addition, Turku Bioimaging (www.bioimaging.fi), the Turku Center for Disease Modeling (www.tcdm.fi), the new Auria Biobank (https://www.auriabiopankki.fi/en/) and the Turku Brain and Mind Center (www.utu.fi/en/units/tbmc/) are important parts of the local infrastructure that provide and coordinate technologies closely related to the life sciences.
For more information please visit
www.abo.fi/en/
Behold world! The clinical trials for CutoSense’s WoundWatch wound assessment systems have officially started! This will be the first truly disruptive innovation in wound care
TCAF Member Finnadvance raises a €1.2 million seed funding round to expand to foreign markets. For more information, please read the press release here.
EpiHeart raised more than 200 % of the equity funding target in the funding campaign organised on the Invesdor platform. epiheart.com/
Please note that due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, the TCAF Networking Event in Tampere on March 19 is cancelled. Hope to see you at
Tissue Cure Alliance Finland (TCAF) will host a networking afternoon in Tampere in March. At the event you can experience live demonstrations, watch presentations and
A new research ecosystem has been set up in Finland in which the country’s leading research organisations, together with the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service,
| Event | When | Where | Website |
| Past | |||
| Regulatory Hurdles on the Way to Advanced Therapies | SEP 30 2020 | VIRTUAL | www.tissuecure.fi/invitation2 |
| 3D Bioprinting in Finland Today | MAR 11 2021 | VIRTUAL | www.tissuecure.fi/3d-bioprinting-in-finland |
| Tissue Engineering in Finland Today | AUG 26 2021 | VIRTUAL | www.tissuecure.fi/tissue-engineering-in-finland |
| iPSCs and Regenerative Medicine | JAN 20 2022 | VIRTUAL | http://www.tissuecure.fi/ipsc/ |
| HealthBio Turku | SEP 14-15 2022 | TURKU | https://turkubusinessregion.com/healthbio/ |
| Nordic Life Science Days | SEP 28-29 2022 | MALMÖ, SWEDEN | https://www.nlsdays.com/ |
| UPM Biomedicals 8th annual conference | OCT 26-27 2022 | HELSINKI / HYBRID | https://www.upmbiomedicals.com/news-events/8th-annual-conference/ |
| Turku Biomaterials Days | OCT 27-28 2022 | TURKU | https://biomaterials.utu.fi/ |
| Upcoming | |||
| ICRS World Congress | SEP 9-12 2023 | SITGES/BARCELONA | https://cartilage.org/event/17th-icrs-world-congress-2023/ |
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