During the next four years, the University of Tartu Development Fund will allocate around six million euros to projects it hopes will strengthen Tartu's position among the top universities in Europe.
Out of 23 potential ideas submitted in the first round, three projects were chosen by specialists from Estonia and Europe, said Alar Karis, rector of the university.
The construction for the new research center which aims to study the relationship between the European Union and Russia, has already started and will receive around 1.6 million euros, according to ETV.
Tartu University’s Genomics Transfer Center will receive 3.5 million euros in support and will have a chance to develop their genetic database. The database will be based on the information collected from gene donors and give doctors the opportunity to keep track of their patients' health problems and analyze potential health hazards which might occur in the future.
"Within the next five years, we will begin researching the genetic changes and their reasons, so that we could better describe the human welfare, health and pathology," said Ursel Soomets, executive director of the center. "Those changes are not conditioned by genes themselves, but by either certain reactions in the cells or environmental impacts," Soomets added.
The third project, which will start developing transgenic disease models and imaging technologies in the Center of Disease Modeling, is considered to be unique in the Nordic region and will receive around one million euros from the fund.
Ingrid Teesalu
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