The great hall of the Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre is dark – and noisy. Green laser lights cut through the air. Speakers at the main stage change frequently. They are giving elevator pitches on their businesses, business paths and the latest technologies. This is Slush, an annual startup event taking place in Helsinki.
The University of Helsinki’s stand is well positioned right by the main stage. There are researchers standing around the bar-like roundtables ready to talk about their projects. Almost everything imaginable is available: cancer therapies, a more efficient way of producing hydrogen, artificial intelligence supporting urban democracy, a new way to provide mental health services, healthier fats...
The stand attracts loads of people and that’s a good thing. After all, it’s why the University participates in Slush, to meet potential investors and partners.
Causes of muscular wasting
Professor and stem cell researcher Pekka Katajisto is at Slush to present the meat cultivation project Myocopia. Katajisto finds the fair experience peculiar.
“Here no-one is interested in the basis of our research idea. They are only interested in how quickly it could be carried forward and what its potential is for growth.”
Myocopia’s key insight is a new way of accurately controlling the reproduction and differentiation of precursor muscle cells. This promotes cellular growth.
Our bodies rarely grow new muscle cells – new muscle is primarily produced to repair damages. In fact, our bodies have few precursor muscle cells that develop into new muscle cells. They too divide only a few times before turning into muscle cells, after which they cease dividing.
Katajisto believes this is one of the reasons for muscular wasting in the elderly; when muscle cells do not divide, muscles do not regenerate but degenerate.
In 2021, researchers discovered a promising method, where precursor muscle cells are prevented form transforming into muscle cells, extending their period of division. Once there are enough divided cells, they could be administered as cellular therapy into the muscle.
Sausage factory?
In 2021, Swetha Gopalakrishnan, who works in Katajisto’s laboratory, was talking to an Australian friend who had moved from academic circles to the business sector. One of their topics of discussion was the difficulty of producing cultivated meat. Since muscle cells are bad at division, their growth in bioreactors is often short-lived.
“I realised that our invention could also be used in food production,” says Gopalakrishnan.
The professor was sceptical initially.
“My first reaction was that we are not going to establish a sausage factory,” says Katajisto.
After sleeping on the idea, Katajisto began warming to it. Gopalakrishnan and Katajisto submitted an invention disclosure on the idea specifically emphasising the cultivation of meat.
A record year
Helsinki Innovation Services Ltd. (HIS), owned by the University, reviews the invention disclosures submitted by members of the University community and latches onto the most promising ones. Annually, a little over hundred disclosures are made and the University acquires the rights to roughly half of them.
Of these, approximately 10 to 15 turn into actual commercialisation projects. Currently, there are 19 ongoing projects including Myocopia. The initial investment comes primarily from Business Finland. The two-year Research to Business funding is usually worth approximately €700,000. This pays, among other things, for the salary of a commercialisation specialist and the contribution of researchers.
Annually, a handful of the projects develop into businesses. In the record year 2024, five new research-based companies, or spinouts, were established. Myocopia’s opportunities for business operations are only just being surveyed. Approximately 60% of the working time of University Researcher Swetha Gopalakrishnan is now earmarked for the company. Pekka Katajisto continues to work primarily as a professor at the University of Helsinki.
Dialogue
Recently appointed CEO of HIS Marko Hakovirta also participated for the first time in Slush. He considers the experience inspiring.
“We had a great stand and many excellent visitors.”
Of course there was also room for improvement, for example, in the number of interactive events.
“Maybe we could organise small groups where for talking more widely on collaboration between business activities and research,” Hakovirta muses.
Hakovirta hopes to bring more initiative to innovation services in general.
“We should be more present on the campuses. We could, for example, highlight the perspectives of the business sector and describe the kind of research that could have demand.”
Innovations should be acted upon more briskly than currently. Hakovirta says that he has witnessed abroad how it only takes a few days from the invention disclosure to the researcher being invited to a meeting.
“After all, bringing innovations to society is at the core of the University’s strategic plan.” Innovation services are a critical function for research universities.
At the moment, projects are primarily promoted with funding from Business Finland. In future, it might be a good idea to investigate other options too, Hakovirta ponders.
Good results
When a project becomes a business, the University of Helsinki Funds steps in as the first investor with approximately a 15% share. Last summer, the Funds had invested €27 million in spinouts and €160,000 in startups originating in student ideas.
When compared with the University’s total investments in securities amounting to €765 million, the contribution seems small. However, it is still significant.
“Spinouts and startups make the University and our research known and grow our networks,” says Deputy Chief Investment Officer Marko Berg from the University of Helsinki Funds.
As a rule, the revenue requirement of the University's investments is 7%. In recent years, investments have been successful. The drug development company Nanoform was listed in the stock exchange in 2020 and Mobidiag, developing diagnostics for infectious diseases, was sold to the United States for €668 million in 2021. As a result of the sale, the University's investment of €7 million in the company yielded a return on investment of approximately €40 million.
“Startups are risk-based investments. Many of them will not bring in much, but when everything comes together, the return on investment can be significant,” says Berg.
Lab costs
Myocopia’s long-term plan is not the establishment of a meat manufacturing plant but licensing the technology for use in cellular agriculture. The researchers do not admit to being motivated by the idea of getting rich. The work in itself is a source of inspiration.
“This is an opportunity to pay back the support I have received from Finland. For me, this is the best place in the world to start a business,” says Swetha Gopalakrishnan.
Pekka Katajisto says that his research career will continue regardless of what happens with the project.
“But of course it would be fun if, for example, you could pay the laboratory costs yourself without having to ask for money from someone else.”
Kaisa Kajander, Operations Director at Helsinki Innovation Services Ltd., was interviewed for background to this article.
Professor of Inorganic Material Chemistry Pedro Camargo and his research group have been developing a hydrogen catalyst for a long time.
“The production of hydrogen requires catalysts with an abundance of rare and expensive metals such as iridium or platinum. A need for new catalysts is evident.”
Camargo and his group discovered such a catalyst in 2023. It is composed of nanoparticles on whose surface the iridium atoms reacting with water have been successfully distributed. The rest of the particle is composed of common soil materials. Using this technique, the need for iridium is only a fraction of what traditional catalysts require. At the same time, manufacturing becomes considerably less expensive.
The invention is already the subject of several patent applications, and the Relight project founded by the researchers has received Research to Business funding. Possible commercial operations could start as early as 2026. The idea is to establish a catalyst manufacturing plant and a product development laboratory.
Will the professor become an entrepreneur?
“Good question! I like my work but if a business is established, I would be likewise interested in working on it. Maybe I would reduce my workload at the University and spend some of the time on Relight. Or I could just sit on the board. Time will tell.”
What is that Slush stand people are constantly swarming in front of? At the stand of the Futumine project, aiming to recycle gold, visitors get to follow in real-time how soundwaves separate gold from electronic waste.
“Our method works but for the time being is too slow for industrial application. We are now investigating whether it could be sped up,” says Professor of Electronics and Industrial Physics Ari Salmi, project lead of the Futumine project.
The Electronics Research Laboratory directed by Salmi has a long tradition in spinout projects. The laboratory was founded in the 1970s by Professor Mauri Luukkala, who was equally interested in basic and applied research as well as commercialisation.
“His successor Edward Hæggström followed suit and I’m now the third professor to continue this practice,” says Salmi.
The Laboratory is the birthplace of, for example, Nanoform Finland, of which Professor Hæggström is the current CEO.
Futumine is Salmi’s third commercialisation project. Perfat Technologies, manufacturing healthier fats, and Acouspin, developing wound care, are already independent companies.
The next project is already being developed. Still, Ari Salmi intends to remain a researcher.
“The University is the right place for me. Others can take things forward from here,” the professor says.