Satu Mustjoki

Prof. Satu Mustjoki awarded with Medix 2024 prize

iCAN’s Scientific Director, Professor Satu Mustjoki is awarded with Medix 2024 prize for the study published in the Immunity journal by CellPress:

Single-cell functional genomics reveals determinants of sensitivity and resistance to natural killer cells in blood cancers

Natural killer (NK) cells circulate in the body, scan cancerous cells, detect and destroy them. Some cancer cells, however, are able to escape NK cells. This escape mechanism has, until now, been unknown. A research group from the University of Helsinki led by prof. Satu Mustjoki has studied and identified these mechanisms in their research on blood cancers. The findings allow the development of new cancer treatments.

Professor Satu Mustjoki (left), Postdoctoral Fellow Olli Dufva and Postdoctoral Researcher Sara Gandolfi checking the results of CRISPR analysis in which genetic scissors are used to silence one gene per leukaemia cell at a time to examine how this particular gene affects the sensitivity of leukaemia cells to NK cell killing.

The international research group is headed by lead researcher, Professor of Translational Hematology Satu Mustjoki from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki and the Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Helsinki University Hospital. The main authors of the article were Postdoctoral Researchers Olli Dufva and Sara Gandolfi.

The Medix Prize by the Minerva Foundation is an important annual award for internationally high-level Finnish medical research. The Medix Prize is awarded by the University of Helsinki and is donated to the university by the Minerva Foundation, which funds the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research at Biomedicum Helsinki.

Read more: minervafoundation.fi/media-release-medix-prize-2024-2/

Our warmest congratulations to Mustjoki and the research group!

Photos by Juha Sarkkinen