Abstract
The Finnish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (FSGCT) was established in 1999 to accelerate scientific progress and to increase education and communication between scientists, medical professionals, funding agencies, and the general public. The society has a widespread basis of members from universities, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and government agencies. It has become highly important to maintain and improve the dialogue between different parties since the field has expanded in the past decade and novel translational applications and therapeutic approaches have emerged at an increasing pace.
Finland has for a long time been in the forefront of the medical and biotechnology field. A successful schooling system is highly appreciated in Finland and the tuition-free university education continuously provides world leading professionals for R&D work, including gene and cell therapy research. The first human gene transfer in Finland took place already in 1995, when Puumalainen et al. 1 used adenoviruses to target glioblastoma. Shortly after, gene therapy was applied to treat vascular disorders, and the first adenoviral gene transfer in the world to human lower limb arteries was performed in 1996. 2 These advancements led to the need to establish a FSGCT. Since then, FSGCT has acted as a visionary body that has strengthened the development of gene and cell therapy research and also contributed to establish biotechnology companies such as FinVector Oy, Biovian Oy, Kuopio Center for Gene and Cell Therapy (KCT), Valo Therapeutics Ltd, TILT Biotherapeutics Ltd., Targovax ASA, Aurealis Pharma AG, and Rokote Laboratories Finland Ltd.
Continuous education and active participation in international networks are the core values of the society to strengthen the field in Finland. FSGCT considers supporting promising young scientists and doctors extremely important and has, therefore, awarded travel grants to gene and cell therapy congresses annually. FSGCT has also hosted the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Annual Congresses in 2004 and 2015 with excellent talks and activities that gathered hundreds of participants around the world. On a smaller scale, FSGCT organizes hands-on training courses and lectures aiming to bring the latest knowledge to professionals within the field. At the time of exponentially increasing amount and flow of information, FSGCT has also found it very important to improve the public awareness of trustworthy scientific research and this has been especially emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of viral vectors in the COVID-19 vaccines has significantly increased the visibility of gene therapy that is a great advantage to the forthcoming new therapies. FSGCT looks confidently to a bright future in the gene and cell therapy field for the benefit of patients and society at large.