Beneficiary 1. University of Helsinki (UHEL), Helsinki, Finland, Co-ordinator

The University of Helsinki has a strong research emphasis. Out of more than 20 universities in the country, UHEL receives 24% of the total budget funding for universities, employs 21% of all professors, but hosts 57% of the national Centres of Excellence in Research, elected by international scientific panels. The University of Helsinki has been invited to be a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a co-operation body for the leading European research universities. Scientists from three units of the University of Helsinki will participate in the project: (i) Applied Biology, (ii) Medicinal Chemistry, and (iii) Pharmaceutical Biology.

Department of Applied Biology (UHEL-AB)

1. Prof. Heikki Hokkanen, professor of agricultural zoology. He holds a Lic. Phil. degree in ecology and natural resource management (1978, Univ. Jyväskylä, Finland), and a PhD in applied entomology (1983, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA). He has a long track record of coordinating international collaborative research, e.g. at the OECD Directorate for Agriculture in Paris. He coordinated the EU-project ERBIC (FAIR5), and has participated in three other EU-projects (‘BORIS’ in FP4, ‘MASTER’ in FP5, and ‘REBECA’ in FP6). Extensive experience in organizing: the main organizer of 15 OECD scientific and policy-oriented workshops. Member of the national Plant Protection Advisory Board, Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry. An active player in scientific publishing: Editor-in-Chief of BioControl (1997-2006); Founding EiC of Arthropod-Plant Interactions (2006-), editor of the book series on ‘Progress in Biological Control’, all by Springer. The only Finnish entomologist so far, who has published two papers in the Annual Review of Entomology (1991, 2006).
Three recent or current research projects include:

• Tekes – KUORI: Potential of wood bark extracts for plant protection [triterpene family, betulin] 2003-2006.
• EU-FP6-2004-SSP-4-022709-SSA-01: “REBECA”, Regulation of Biological Control Agents, 2006-2008, contractor [includes the use of natural plant derived compounds].
• Tekes-INNOKUORI, Utilization of Betulin and Its Derivatives for Plant Protection, 2006-2008.

2. Dr. Econ. Ingeborg Menzler-Hokkanen is a postdoctoral project researcher. After a solid research and publication record within pure economics, she has focused first on the socio-economic aspects of plant biotechnology, and then of pest management. She was a workpackage leader in the EU-project MASTER, which investigated the incentives and constraints of farmers to adopt IPM technologies. She also contributed to the EU-project REBECA on the regulation of biopesticides, and is currently a researcher in the national TEKES-project on birch bark.
3. Professor Jim Lynch, OBE, visiting professor, is Terrestrial Sector Director of C-Questor Ltd and Chairman of the subsidiary Terraform Ltd (UK), concerned with land remediation on a global scale. For further details see p. 65.
Role in the project

• Scientific and overall coordination of the FORESTSPECS-project (WP1)
• Research on bioactivity against pest insects (and other animal pests) (WP4)
• Using fungi to upgrade the composting process to deliver better products; introduction of selected strains of Trichoderma spp into bark to compare the rate of degradation and product formation compared to bark without the fungus added (WP5).
• Carrying out plant bioassays in soil treated with bark, composted bark and fungal treated bark (WP5).
• Research on innovation and economic feasibility related to FORESTSPECS topics (WP6)

Faculty of Pharmacy (UHEL-PHA): Medicinal Chemistry

4. Prof. Jari Yli-Kauhaluoma, PhD (professor of medicinal chemistry) performed his postgraduate research in bioorganic chemistry with Prof. Kim D. Janda and Prof. Richard Lerner at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, U.S.A (1992-95). After obtaining his PhD from the University of Helsinki in 1997, he did a postdoctoral study with Prof. Rick L. Danheiser at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A. (1997-98) developing transition-metal catalysed cycloaddition reactions. After returning to Finland he developed heterocyclic synthesis methodology in the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). He is currently a professor of medicinal chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy. The present drug targets are protein kinases (PKC, PIM-3, Alk) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases. The medicinal chemistry group has recently embarked on the projects that aim at the development of solid-phase cycloaddition reactions , and the design and synthesis of new antibiotic, antiviral, and antiparasitic compounds based on the abundant and naturally occurring triterpenes (Betula sp., Quercus sp.).3 In addition, new synthesis methodology for the stereoselective synthesis of retinal and retinoic acid derivatives for physiological and biological studies are currently being developed. Finally, studies directed towards understanding the human metabolism of opioids and the doping agents with psychostimulatory and antiœstrogenic properties are in progress. Yli-Kauhaluoma has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles (including one in Science) and 18 patents/patent applications in chemistry.
5. Dr. Ingo Aumüller, postdoctoral fellow and is in charge of organic synthesis and structure-activity studies. He has authored 7 peer-reviewed scientific articles.
6. M.Sc.(Pharm.) Maija-Liisa Tuononen, PhD Student, and she will focus on synthetic modification of terpenes and suberin fatty acids for pharmaceutical applications as well as structure-activity studies.
7. Mrs. Irene Kylänlahti, laboratory technician, synthesis of the key terpenoid intermediates

Role in the project

• Modification of the most interesting identified wood and wood residue-based compounds by chemical and biotechnological means, and characterization of the obtained compounds in terms of their chemical structure and purity (WP2).
• Providing WP3, WP4 and WP5 with the chemical derivatives of the isolated pure compounds for various biological, physiological and pharmacological activity tests, for testing their properties from the perspective of material science, and for assessment of their value as ingredients in cosmetic products (WP2).

Faculty of Pharmacy (UHEL-PHA): Pharmaceutical Biology

8. Prof. Raimo Hiltunen, PhD (Pharm) is professor of pharmacognosy at the Univ. of Helsinki (1988-present), Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy (2004-present) and Head of the Division of Pharmacognosy since 1988. He has authored or co-authored more than 280 peer-reviewed scientific articles in pharmacy, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, separation techniques, genetics, terpene chemistry and gene technology, written 8 books and scientific book chapters (3) and has five patents. During the last years Prof. Hiltunen has focused his scientific interest to plant phenolics and their antioxidant and cell signalling effects.
9. Docent Atso Raasmaja, PhD (Senior Lecturer and Docent in Pharmacology) performed his doctoral studies at the Univ. of Stockholm in 1990, and continued his research education as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, McGill Univ. and Louisiana State Univ. His research interests include studies on cell viability and cell death in vitro and in vivo, and the effects of specific drugs or plant compounds and extracts on cell degeneration/death. He has authored 50 original scientific articles or patents/patent applications or reviews/book chapters.
10. Dr. Damien Dorman completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Univ. of Strathclyde in 1999. His professional experiences include analytical chemistry (Hopital Régional D'Angers, France), cytotoxicology (Robens Institute of Industrial and Environmental Health and Safety, UK) and consultancy (V. Procter & Gamble Eurocor S.A.). Since joining the Div. Pharm. Biology in 1999, he has been the group leader of the Antioxidant Research Group. He has authored peer-reviewed 23 research articles, 1 book chapter, 1 review article, 10 congress proceedings and 41 published abstracts related to composition and antioxidant screening of plant-derived products.
11. M.Sc. (Pharm) Tiina Lantto, Ph.D. student at the Division of Pharmaceutical Biology, UH-PHA. Her expertise is animal biotechnology orientated in molecular biology and gene technology.
12. Prof. Heikki Vuorela, Ph.D. (Pharm) is professor of pharmacognosy at the Univ. of Helsinki (1998-present) Vice Dean in research in the Faculty of Pharmacy (2004-present). He has worked several times as researcher in Novartis AG (Sandoz AG), Basel and ETH-Zurich, Switzerland. He has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 3 patent families in pharmacy especially in the field of drug discovery and chromatography. Recently Prof. Vuorela has focused his scientific interest on drugs against Chlamydia pneumoniae infections in vitro and in vivo.
13. Dr. Päivi Tammela (docent in pharmaceutical biology, head of the Bioactivity Screening Group at the DDTC, ) completed her PhD (Pharm) in 2004 at the University of Helsinki. Doc. Tammela is an expert on assay miniaturisation, automation, and utilization of new labelling techniques in in vitro screens for the bioactivity evaluation of diverse library compounds/products. Current projects of her group involve research on bacterial and viral targets. Se has authored 25 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 6 patents/patent applications.
Role in the project

• Study of the compound fractions, isolated pure compounds and/or the chemical derivatives of the isolated pure compounds provided by the WP2 for their potential use in applications for health, cosmetics and speciality chemicals (WP3).
• Evaluation of the antimicrobial, antioxidative and apoptotic/antiapoptotic properties of the above-mentioned substances (WP3).
• Providing continuous feedback to the WP2 and WP6 to guide the structural optimisation and innovations for new product options (WP3).