[2] In 1992, Metspalu was appointed to the Chair of Biotechnology at the University of Tartu, and head of the Gene Technology Laboratory, Estonian Biocentre.

In 1993 he spent three months at the University of Hamburg's H. Pette Institute for Experimental Immunolog, and then from 1993 to 1994 was a visiting professor at Baylor College of Medicine's Dept.

[2] Metspalu became interested in DNA, genes, and ribosomes in high school, but made his final decision to follow this subject in his fourth semester of molecular biology, when he began practical research in biochemistry under Artur Lind.

On his returning from America, he contributed knowledge to the molecular biology lab at the University of Tartu, which obtained a new generation of devices and began to undertake modern genetic science.

In 2002 he won the French Award "Prix de la Garantie Medicale et Chirurgicale" and in 2003 was made Chevalier of the "Ordre des Palmes Académiques".

[2] In 2017, he was awarded the Baltic Assembly Prize for Science in recognition of "his innovative, diverse and lasting contribution to gene technology and molecular diagnostic".