The University of Oulu is relatively young—founded in 1959—but still, essentially two generations have worked at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. The first Head and Professor, Niilo Kärki (appointed 1962), had been a postdoc of Bernard B. Brodie’s Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, and he established a research project of drug metabolism at the Department. Olavi Pelkonen, the current Head and Professor of Pharmacology since 1986, defended his thesis on drug metabolism in the human fetus in 1973, went to NIH to Daniel W. Nebert’s laboratory during 1976-77, and drug metabolism research has been one of the mainstays of the Department ever since. Another principal project, cardiovascular diseases and drugs, started sometime in the early seventies when Assoc. Prof. Heikki Karppanen spent a few years at the Department, and his postgraduate student Heikki Ruskoaho, who is currently Professor of Molecular Pharmacology (since 1996), defended his thesis on cardiovascular drugs in 1983, spent his postdoctoral years in Detlev Ganten’s Laboratory in Heidelberg University from 1984-85, and after returning, established a project on molecular and cellular biology of natriuretic peptides.

The drug metabolism project flourished particularly from the mid-80s to the mid-90s, due to the presence of dedicated scientists and extensive collaboration. This project is currently "catching its breath," you might say, maybe due to the appointment of significant persons from the project to professorships at other universities and the growth and development of new seniors. But it has been very gratifying to the Department that when one project is having a lull, the other one is speeding up. The heart research project, through the alliance with the neighboring Department of Physiology as well as international collaboration, has grown up into a large interdisciplinary project with a size of a "critical mass" and is one of the leading projects at the University and in Finland.

Both principal projects began as curiosity-driven undertakings, both closely associated with their principal investigators, although admittedly both are of importance for the current pharmacological and toxicological research. Drug metabolism is a main factor in pharmacokinetics, drug interactions, pharmacogenetics, and other processes affecting the fate and effects not only of pharmaceuticals, but also of other chemical substances. Natriuretic peptides are important regulators of cardiovascular and renal functions, and from these considerations the project has expanded to encompass the molecular and cellular factors affecting cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, clinically important conditions affecting millions of people worldwide. Through the support of national and EU programmes and funds, both projects have expanded into the area of drug discovery and development: the drug metabolism project has been involved in collaborative and service work on in vitro drug metabolism assays for small and large drug companies, and the heart research project is in the process of identifying novel targets for cardiovascular drugs as well as developing modern diagnostic tools for cardiac diseases. Both projects have been networking with domestic and international collaborators, including some EU research programmes and US laboratories. Parenthetically, one of the factors which has probably been of considerable importance for the success of both projects is international collaboration even before this paradigm was "discovered" as a main strategic goal for the University.

The Department has always stressed that teaching and learning should be based on science, on teachers doing their own research. University teaching without research scientists is as unsteady as a one-legged man. Through teaching it has also been possible to recruit young medical and science students, first to experience the thrills of research and then by mutual decision, to enroll into postgraduate training programs. It has been very gratifying to see that M.D.’s and Ph.D.’s from the Department have had such training that they have been appointed to professorships and scientific positions in various public institutions and private industry, here and abroad.

The following scientists have had significant portions of their scientific education at the Department and are currently in prominent positions (professors, CEOs, directors, and so on) elsewhere:

• Juha-Matti Savola (Juvantia Pharma Corp, Turku, Finland)
• Päivi Kinnunen (Stanford University, CA, USA)
• Kirsi Vähäkangas (University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland)
• Hannu Raunio (University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland)
• Jorma T Ahokas (RMIT-University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
• Miklos Toth (Semmelweiss University, Budapest, Hungary)
• Jukka Mäenpää (Santen Pharmaceuticals, Tampere, Finland)

Although research groups are often identified through their principal investigators, we have always tried to acknowledge the fact that modern biomedical research is teamwork, with senior and junior scientists and students together with auxiliary personnel, and it evolves via constant, daily exchange of views, information, data, and publications. A team is more than the sum of its members but still only as strong as its weakest link. Consequently, team spirit is something every group should cherish and it is especially the duty of Head and Project Leaders to give a direction and also take care of their fellow workers, both junior and senior. "Direction" has something to do with the significance of research ("we tackle problems, which are significant and important and would lead to advances in the field") and "care" means support, friendship, trust, and transparency in deeds and decisions.

Strategic planning at the Faculty level has not been (fortunately) very forceful, but the University’s decision to create an umbrella organization on biotechnology and molecular biology (Biocenter Oulu) has been instrumental in advancing biomedical research at the Faculty and the Department. Other focus areas of research at the University are Information Technology and Arctic Environment, which have not yet been actualized with respect to the Department. Consequently, the Department continues to concentrate upon its strong areas of research, both at the curiosity level and at the more applied level, with its domestic and international collaborators. We really think that (biomedical) science is global and its fruits should be globally distributed through publications accessible to all and through products that are useful to human life.

Both of the principal investigators belong to the top 50 most-cited authors in the Finnish biomedical community and to the top 10 most-cited researchers at the University of Oulu (according to some widely publicized unofficial surveys by researchers at the University of Helsinki). The University is probably the third northernmost university in the world and, as previously stated, is relatively young. We believe that these factors led to a relative isolation previously, but at the present moment, globalization of science through, e.g. extensive real-time communication (incidentally, Nokia is a Finnish company and one of its "mobile" birth places was University of Oulu) has created a situation where a researcher can live and work near the Polar Circle and still communicate daily with his/her "invisible college" and be productive and highly cited.

Olavi Pelkonen
Professor of Pharmacology
Head, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
University of Oulu
Finland