Press release

Record number of patients helped through the Stem Cell Registry

In 2023, as many as 66 volunteers belonging to the Finnish Stem Cell Registry donated stem cells to unknown patients. The number of donations has increased by as much as 53% in a single year, as there were 43 donations in 2022.

Jan Koski defended his thesis on CAR T cell therapies

Jan Koski, MSc, a project researcher at the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, defended his doctoral thesis on enhancing CAR T cell therapy at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine on Friday 15 December 2023.

Opening hours at Blood Service around Christmas time

Christmas Eve falls on a weekend this year. On Friday 22 December, blood can be donated at the Blood Service's permanent locations and blood donation events at Hyvinkää, Porvoo, Loimaa, Pirkkala and Ähtävä. The next possibility is on Boxing Day 26 December.

Blood Donation Bus soon calling at stops in the Helsinki metropolitan area

Soon, you will be able to give blood in new surroundings when the Blood Donation Bus rolls into town. The bus, designed specifically for blood donation, will tour the Helsinki metropolitan area, offering a new way to reach blood donors in addition to Blood Service centres and blood donation events.

The Finnish Genomics Initiative FinnGen enters its next phase with 52M€ of new funding

The FinnGen research consortium has successfully collected and generated genomic data from 500,000 individuals. Now, the project will continue its search for genetic clues to disease progression and explore the biological mechanism of the genetic signals uncovered in the first stages of the project. In the FinnGen project there's also genome data produced from blood donors in the Blood Service Biobank.