Education and Science, Estonia

The government gave permission to the university to have tissue samples from up to 152,000 gene donors collected into the Estonian Biobank preserved and surveyed at the Finnish company Nightingale Health Ltd for the conduct of scientific research for the purpose of compiling metabolic profiles in the Estonian Biobank cohort, spokespeople for the government said.

The application filed by the University of Tartu says that conducting the research abroad is necessary because the method of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) can not be used in Estonia. The Estonian Biobank has previously in collaboration with the same Finnish company surveyed the blood plasma of 10,000 gene donors using the NMR method. Since several research projects in the estimation of cardiac and vascular disease risks are underway at the Estonian Biobank, the existing sample of 10,000 tissue samples is not sufficient.

The research is financed from a research grant of Nightingale Health Ltd.

The government also authorized the University of Tartu to have biological material from up to 750 gene donors held at the Estonian Biobank preserved and surveyed abroad as part of a Swiss and Norwegian research project aimed at identifying factors holding back weight gain in a person.

Within the framework of the same research, the government has previously authorized the University of Tartu on three occasions to survey and preserve tissue samples from up to 5,000 gene donors at the Nestle Institute of Health Sciences in Switzerland.

The research is financed with a research grant of the Nestle Institute of Health Sciences.