About the Minerva Foundation

The main purpose of the Foundation is to promote research in medicine and biosciences by maintaining the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research.

History

In the 1950’ies the academic staff of the Fourth Department of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, located at Maria Hospital, was very actively engaged in research. However, they lacked space. The Head of the Department, Professor Bertel von Bonsdorff (1904-2004), known for his studies on fish tapeworm anaemia, suggested that the scientists pool their grants and rent space for a laboratory. His collaborators agreed and in 1959 rooms were rented from the small Methodist Konkordia Hospital. As a legal frame The Minerva Foundation was formed. Three senior medical scientists with collaborators started the activity: Bror-Axel Lamberg (1923-2014), internist and endocrinologist, Wolmar Nyberg (1919-1973), hematologist and parasitologist and Ralph Gräsbeck (1930-2016), clinical pathologist and biochemist. Lamberg was the first Head of the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research. The first junior scientist to produce a doctoral thesis from the Institute was Albert de la Chapelle who started to examine chromosomes at the suggestion of the President of the Foundation, Professor Herman Hortling (1912-1992).

Nyberg and Gräsbeck continued the research of von Bonsdorff and proved that the tapeworm causes vitamin B 12 (cobalamin) deficiency in its host. Subsequently Gräsbeck continued research on the protein-mediated transport of vitamin B 12. Together with Kai Simons they were the first to isolate Castle’s intrinsic factor and to describe haptocorrin (which they called R-binder). Lamberg introduced radioactive iodine for the modern diagnosis and for the study of thyroid diseases and confirmed iodine deficiency being the cause of endemic goitre in Finland. De la Chapelle subsequently became a recognised medical geneticist. Simons has become a famous cell biologist, who headed for a number of years the EMBL Dept. of Cell Biology in Heidelberg and a Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany. Frej Fyhrquist produced his thesis on renin-angiotensin, became an expert on the hormonal regulation of blood pressure, and was Head of the Institute until the end of 2003, succeeding Gräsbeck who was the head 1971-1994. Fyhrquist as Head of the Institute was followed by professor Dan Lindholm, a neurobiologist, and he in turn in 2011 by professor Vesa Olkkonen, a lipid cell biologist and cardiovascular researcher.

For the research in Minerva numerous laboratory tests were introduced. Many of them became interesting and later routine tests which began to be requested by doctors. However, the Foundation is not permitted to pursue commercial activities and it was difficult to render this service as the customers could not be charged. Therefore, the scientists founded a company, Medix Ltd. to perform the tests. The founders donated their shares to the Minerva and Folkhälsan Foundations and the Liv och Hälsa Society (law then required a limited company to have at least three owners) with the provision that all profit was to be used to promote research. The company has expanded and multiplied in a remarkable way. The Yhtyneet Medix Laboratories Ltd. became the biggest private reference laboratory in Finland. Medix Biochemica Ltd. produces monoclonal antibodies and reagent kits which are sold all over the world. The profits and resulting dividends of the enterprises allowed the Foundation to maintain the institute infrastructure. In 2016, the Minerva Foundation sold a majority of its ownership in the Medix enterprises and shifted its holdings to securities/stock market, part of the dividends of which are at present used for running the Institute.

1970

Maria Hospital

Albert de la Chapelle