News

Dear students, lecturer! Thank you for your patience! We are aware that there are many questions about the continuing of contact study and having taken into account the directions from the Government of Estonia, the Rector`s office of the University of Tartu and the instructions from the UT Clinic`s crisis management team the following rules apply from 14.12.2020 [collapsed]

The government of Estonia decided today that as of 14 December, all educational institutions, including universities, will be closed. Therefore, the university leaders decided that no classroom studies are conducted at the University of Tartu at least until the spring semester.

Researchers of the University of Tartu analysed the data from the eight months of 2020 about nearly 32,000 people, including those who had been tested positive for coronavirus during that period and those who had not. The initial results of the analysis showed that a corona patient was mostly likely hospitalised due to pneumonia or acute bronchitis. Those who did not have corona went to the hospital mostly to give birth or for a medical repeat procedure.

The monitoring study led by the University of Tartu reveals that the number of infectious adults in Estonia has at least tripled compared to mid-November. At the same time, people are following government-imposed restrictions more carefully than before, wearing masks and refraining from physical meetings.

In early summer, nearly 500 people wanted to take part in the study by researchers of the University of Tartu and donate their blood plasma so that it could be used to treat people suffering from COVID-19. Eleven of them made it to the donor chair and donated 20 plasma doses in total. Now, the first severely ill corona patient has received the plasma transfusion with antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

A study by University of Tartu researchers indicates that the sensitivity of tests used to detect viral antibodies in a blood sample may differ significantly. The combination of several tests may give the best result. At the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, first, the nasopharyngeal swab is taken to verify the presence of the virus. But if the aim is to determine whether an asymptomatic person has been in contact with the virus or, vice versa, to know which acute disease the person recently suffered from, a test detecting antibodies in a blood sample comes helpful.

Researchers and doctors from the University of Tartu and Tartu University Hospital evaluated the use of a novel revolutionary method, flow cytometry, for diagnosing urethritis in Estonian men. The study published in PLOS ONE confirmed the efficiency of the method and showed that most often urethritis was due to chlamydia. Gonorrhoea caused the strongest urethral inflammation.

On Tuesday, 1 December, the university members celebrate the 101st anniversary of Estonia's national university.

A new stage in the coronavirus prevalence study begins on 26 November, led by the University of Tartu researchers. Its aim is to determine the prevalence of coronavirus infection among adult population and estimate its change compared to the study conducted two weeks ago. In the new stage that runs until 4 December, researchers also observe changes in people’s behaviour patterns in relation to the restrictive measures introduced by the government.

Researchers of the University of Tartu Institute of Dentistry participate in a 15-million-euro project Sleep Revolution that aims to transform the research, diagnosis and treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea and the related disorders. As one part of the project, a digital platform will be developed to help patients with snoring and sleep apnoea to exercise the muscles of the tongue and face.

Andres Salumets, Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the University of Tartu, has been appointed Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Karolinska Institute. He is probably the first Estonian professor at Karolinska Institute. Karolinska Institute is one of the largest and most prestigious medical universities in Europe. Salumets starts work at its Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC).

So far, the university has favoured preferring face-to-face learning to distance learning. However, as the coronavirus infection rate is increasing, the Rector’s Office decided at its today’s meeting that it is reasonable to rapidly reorganise studies wherever possible to safeguard the health of all university members.

Quite understandably, the university cannot remain untouched by the spread of the coronavirus. The growth in the number of the infected has put the Health Board under a lot of pressure, which is why the necessary information does not reach all potential close contacts as quickly as we would like. The least we can do to help the Health Board is inform the members of our university. Thereby we help ensure that students and employees do not unknowingly spread the virus.

Next week, a pilot study will start for testing coronavirus from saliva samples. The saliva test is believed to be cheaper and more convenient than the nasal swab test used at present.

Dear members of the faculty Our academic and everyday lives continue in an unusual rhythm. To be fair, the autumn semester has so far been able to run with only mild restrictions. But the situation is changing because the corona virus has begun to spread more rapidly. I call on you to follow the set regulations even more precisely to impede the spreading of the virus. Our common goal is to stay as healthy as possible and continue studies and scientific work.

On Tuesday, University of Tartu researchers will continue the monitoring study on the prevalence of the coronavirus to determine the extent of the spread of the virus among Estonian residents. Over the next two months, researchers plan to test in total up to 10,000 people nationwide in the course of the four stages of the study.

Colostrum is an exceptionally useful basic product abundant in immune and growth factors. So far, bovine colostrum has been marketed in Estonia in the form of powder meant as a human food supplement and complementary feed for farm animals. Now, researchers of the University of Tartu Institute of Pharmacy are helping producers to develop colostrum-based pharmaceutical preparations.

Sports researchers of the University of Tartu studied children from Tartu at their transition from kindergarten to school and found that when a pre-schooler gets to engage in at least one hour of moderate or intense physical activity every day, it will have a positive effect on the child’s physical well‑being also a year later.

Osteosarcoma is a primary malignant bone tumour with a high incidence rate in children and adolescents. With the participation of medical researchers from the University of Tartu, an international study identified a new potential biomarker for osteosarcoma that can become a new therapeutic target.

With the participation of medical researchers from the University of Tartu, two research articles were recently published in Science, describing the mechanisms the coronavirus uses to infect cells and spread in tissues. The findings provide new potential ways of preventing viral infection by the novel coronavirus, and clues as to why it is more infectious than other similar viruses.