Welcome to SWAN

Sustainable Wellbeing Across Lifespan (SWAN) is a network of people, research groups, and labs sharing many resources and one goal: to consolidate world-leading research on healthy aging across the campuses of the University of Helsinki.  This joint research area brings together the Faculty of Medicine, the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (part of the Helsinki Institute of Life Science HiLIFE), and the Faculties of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Science, and Social Sciences.

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The proportion of people aged 65 and older will comprise over a third of the European population by 2040. SWAN combines molecular mechanistic, medical and population data expertise to generate an interdisciplinary team of excellence, aiming to reorient from managing chronic diseases to promoting “chronic health” and enhance healthy years in the population.  SWAN shifts medicine from treating symptoms toward early detection and prevention of degenerative diseases, tailored to each person, to extend healthy years of life. It builds knowledge of molecular metabolism and combines it with biomedical and genetic data to identify individual disease risks, develops biomarkers and intervention targets, and links these to clinical use and societal impact.

 

This profile building area is a part of PROFI8 and 9, and is funded by the Research Council of Finland 2025–2031.​