Tiny Par­ti­cles, Big Impact: How Oulu Sci­en­tists Play a Role in Shap­ing the Future of Health and Farm­ing

At the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, researchers are explor­ing some of the small­est but most pow­er­ful play­ers in health and agri­cul­ture: tiny nat­ur­al par­ti­cles called extra­cel­lu­lar vesi­cles. These micro­scop­ic mes­sen­gers, found in foods and plants, are open­ing new doors for bet­ter nutri­tion, dis­ease pre­ven­tion, and sus­tain­able farm­ing.

Two major inter­na­tion­al projects, NutriEV and FarmEVs, are plac­ing Oulu at the fore­front of this field. Led in part by Pro­fes­sor Sep­po Vainio, these ini­tia­tives bring togeth­er sci­en­tists from across Europe and beyond to dis­cov­er how these vesi­cles could change the way we eat, heal, and grow food.

“NutriEV tar­gets a new ele­ment in nature, which is a uni­ver­sal sys­tem,” says Pro­fes­sor Vainio. “It is kind of amaz­ing how sci­ence reveals these new hid­den secrets.”

From Food to Health: The Promise of NutriEV

The NutriEV project focus­es on vesi­cles found in raw and fer­ment­ed foods, study­ing their effects on gut health and metab­o­lism. Unlike many nutri­ents that break down dur­ing diges­tion, these vesi­cles can sur­vive the jour­ney and deliv­er their mol­e­c­u­lar car­go direct­ly to cells, poten­tial­ly help­ing with issues like obe­si­ty, dia­betes, and even men­tal health.

“In a way, we’re going back to the basics,” says Vainio. “Hip­pocrates said, ‘Let food be med­i­cine’, and now we’re find­ing sci­en­tif­ic ways to under­stand that idea.”

In NutriEV, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu works along­side lead­ing research insti­tu­tions such as the Nation­al Research Coun­cil of Italy, the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Braun­schweig (Ger­many), the Uni­ver­si­ty of Copen­hagen (Den­mark), and Zabala Inno­va­tion, a Span­ish con­sul­tan­cy spe­cial­iz­ing in facil­i­tat­ing access to grant fund­ing world­wide.

Smarter Farm­ing with FarmEVs

FarmEVs looks at how vesi­cles pro­duced by plants could help farm­ers grow stronger, health­i­er crops with­out syn­thet­ic chem­i­cals. The research includes find­ing ways to use plant vesi­cles as nat­ur­al fer­til­iz­ers or dis­ease-resis­tance boost­ers, sup­port­ing a shift toward more regen­er­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly farm­ing prac­tices. The same types of vesi­cles might also one day be used to deliv­er plant-based treat­ments for inflam­ma­tion or oth­er health con­di­tions in peo­ple.

FarmEVs is coor­di­nat­ed by the Nation­al Research Coun­cil of Italy and brings togeth­er a wide net­work of aca­d­e­m­ic part­ners, includ­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ljubl­jana (Slove­nia), Kyung Hee Uni­ver­si­ty (South Korea), Daman­hour Uni­ver­si­ty (Egypt), the Uni­ver­si­ty of Naples Fed­eri­co II (Italy), and, of course, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. The project also counts on the col­lab­o­ra­tion of Cin­ves­tav (Mex­i­co), ImmunoVeg – a micro-enter­prise oper­at­ing in the Plant Biotech­nol­o­gy sec­tor – and Lehtosarvi, a fam­i­ly farm locat­ed in south­ern Fin­land, spe­cial­ized in organ­ic, regen­er­a­tive, and bio­dy­nam­ic farm­ing.

Oulu’s Role and Oppor­tu­ni­ties for Local Com­pa­nies

With its exper­tise in biol­o­gy and strong col­lab­o­ra­tion net­works, Oulu is a key hub in both projects. The region’s strong research infra­struc­ture and cross-sec­toral strengths in health and tech­nol­o­gy are a key advan­tage.

“Oulu is now very well posi­tioned at the Euro­pean lev­el,” Vainio explains. “It has all the key tech­nolo­gies in place, and infra­struc­ture, includ­ing the Bio­cen­ter and the Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal. In Oulu, we also have access to pop­u­la­tion and pre-clin­i­cal data. And we can also pro­ceed to clin­i­cal data, in the Uni­ver­si­ty Hospital’s capac­i­ties. The Bio­cen­ter is very well-equipped. So, we have all the means to crack the code.”

Beyond acad­e­mia, Oulu’s indus­try roots in ICT and dig­i­tal­iza­tion are becom­ing a mag­net for biotech devel­op­ment. “We have excel­lent sys­tems, great access to the Hos­pi­tal and clin­i­cal part­ners, and the Bio­chem­istry Cen­ter is great,” Vainio says. “Also, Nokia, Polar, VTT, and Oura were great attrac­tors to Oulu, as they are advanc­ing biosen­sors.”

But Vainio also notes a need for bet­ter coor­di­na­tion and long-term invest­ment: “We have a great busi­ness open­ing for com­pa­nies that are present in the dig­i­tal­iza­tion area. Oulu is in a good posi­tion glob­al­ly, com­bin­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties for sup­port­ing real­ly good research, data analy­sis, and dig­i­tal­iza­tion. So now, we need to access the clus­ters, to make a net­work and a con­nec­tion.”

The work under­way sup­ports a broad­er “One Health” vision, link­ing human, ani­mal, and envi­ron­men­tal health. And as the lines between food, health, and med­i­cine con­tin­ue to blur, Oulu is prov­ing that small bio­log­i­cal sys­tems can car­ry sig­nif­i­cant impacts across dis­ci­plines and across bor­ders.

Text: Beat­riz Rocha, Health & Life Sci­ence, Busi­nes­sOulu
Image: iStock.com/demaerre