About Us

The Board of the Research Center is responsible for coordinating the overall activities within the Center.

Board Members:
Tom Böhling (Chair)
Christel Gripenberg-Lerche (Vice Chair)
Kristian Wahlbeck 
Anna Hellerstedt

Secretary: Michael von Boguslawski
Presenter: Anna-Elina Lehesjoki 

Presence right:
Johan Eriksson
Siv Sandberg

The Operational Board of the Center supports the Director of the Center in coordinating the research programs and in promoting their collaboration.

Board Members:
Anna-Elina-Lehesjoki (Chair) 
Michael von Boguslawski 
Outi Elomaa
Tuija Mikkola
Markku Lehto
Eva Roos
Niina Sandholm
Marco Savarese
Heli Viljakainen
Jaana Welin-Haapamäki (Secretary)

Presence right:
Heidi Furu

Folkhälsan Research Center is part of Samfundet Folkhälsan i svenska Finland rf. The Research Center is financed partly by Samfundet Folkhälsan's own funds and support from the Folkhälsan Research Foundation, and partly by external grants.

Director: Anna-Elina Lehesjoki
Administrative Manager: Michael von Boguslawski
Compliance Expert, Research Integrity Adviser: Outi Elomaa
Science Communicator: Heidi Furu
Executive Assistant: Jaana Welin-Haapamäki
Planner: Carina Brandstetter

Nina Forss and Sebastian Oey from Samfundet Folkhälsan's finance department are responsible for the financial administration of the Research Center.

Director: Markku Lehto
Laboratory Manager: Ann-Liz Träskelin

The Center has close collaboration with the University of Helsinki, which is based on a mutual cooperation agreement since 1996. Many of the Group Leaders in the Center are professors at the University of Helsinki.

Six research groups are affiliated with the Research Programs of the Medical Faculty, University of Helsinki for the period 2019–2026:

• groups led by Professor Mäkitie, Adjunct Professor Sandholm, and Adjunct Professor Tuomi within the Clinical and Molecular Metabolism Research Program, and
• groups led by Professor Kere and Adjunct Professor Kallijärvi within the Stem Cells and Metabolism Research Program, and
• the group led by Saavalainen within the Translational Immunology Program.

You can find the presentation here

Ossian Schauman, one of the founders and the first chairman of Folkhälsan, and his wife Betsy left in their will almost their entire property to "establish and maintain a Swedish institute for theoretical and applied genetic research". The Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics was founded in 1962. The first two decades it operated in close cooperation with the Medical Research Institute Minerva, later also with the Department of Medical Genetics of the University of Helsinki.

In 1990s Folkhälsan decided to broaden its research activities to encompass also public health related research. The Folkhälsan Research Center was founded in 1994, and in 1997 the Center moved to its own premises in the Folkhälsan Senior House at Mannerheimintie 97.

Since 2001 genetics research and the administration of the Research Center are located in Biomedicum Helsinki. The public health research groups work in Folkhälsan's main building on Topeliuksenkatu 20.