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The iCAN teams have a strong track record in translational and clinical cancer as well as data science, which has generated more than 33,000 citations and over 120 highly cited publications. The subprojects teams include surgeons, oncologists, pathologists, molecular biologists and data scientists. The number of Principal Investigators in iCAN FP currently exceeds 70 and the number of total staff amounts to nearly 200.
| photo | name | visible | bio | groups | all_researchers | Leadership_admin | SIAB | sorting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Lauri A. Aaltonen Academy Professor, UH | 1 | Has made seminal contributions in the field of somatic tumor genomics, as well as development of diagnostic tools for detection of cancer predisposition. Centre of Excellence Director. Served in the specialist group developing the national legislation on biobanks (appointed by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs).
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
 | Anniina Färkkilä Academy of Finland Clinical Research fellow, Specialist in Gynecology, Principal Investigator | 1 | Anniina Färkkilä is a gynecologist and a Principal Investigator at the Research Program for Systems Oncology, University of Helsinki. She recently completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where her work focused on mechanisms of resistance and biomarkers for combination therapies in ovarian cancer. Currently, her laboratory focuses on understanding the dynamics of the tumor microenvironment using systems oncology approaches.
| 1 | 2 | 8 | ||
 | Esa Pitkänen FIMM-EMBL Group Leader, Academy Research Fellow | 1 | Esa Pitkänen, PhD, is a FIMM-EMBL Group Leader and an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki. He is a Principal Investigator in the Applied Tumor Genomics Research Programme in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. Dr. Pitkänen’s research group develops novel machine learning and computational methods for biomedicine, focusing on deep learning. Specific application areas are cancer genetics and genomics, mutational processes in cancer and hematological malignancies.
| 1 | 2 | 15 | ||
 | Ilkka Ilonen MD, Docent., FEBTS. University of Helsinki and HUS - Helsinki University Hospital | 1 | Ilkka Ilonen is an Adjunct Professor and Principal Investigator at the University of Helsinki and an Attending Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Department of General Thoracic and Oesophageal Surgery, Helsinki University Hospital. His research interests include lung and oesophageal cancers, thymic malignancies; pulmonary metastases; mesothelioma; minimally invasive surgery; benign oesophageal surgery; liquid biopsy; immuno-oncology and translational cancer research.
| 1 | 45 | |||
 | Outi Monni Adjunct Professor, Principal Investigator | 1 | Outi Monni is a Principal Investigator and Group Leader of the Oncogenomics research group at the Applied Tumor Genomics Research Program, University of Helsinki. She has expertise in tumor genomics and genomics technologies. In particular, she has studied amplified genes in cancer and how they contribute to tumor progression. She is also Director of the Biomedicum Functional Genomics Unit (FuGU) which provides next-generation sequencing and genomics services for other researchers.
| 1 | 65 | |||
 | Tomi P. Mäkelä Professor | 1 | Leadership experience including setting up new life science clusters. Involved in Health Capital Helsinki ecosystem stimulator. Scientifically recognized for work on cell growth signaling and its deregulation in cancer. Recent work on the tumor suppressor kinase LKB1 fosuing on stroma-epithelial and metabolic signaling and disease models in gastrointestinal and lung cancer.
| 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
 | Minna Anttonen Executive Director, Association of Cancer Patients in Finland | 1 | Minna Anttonen is the Executive Director for the Association of Cancer Patients in Finland. She represents the voice of cancer patients on the iCAN Steering Board. She is an advocate for patient engagement in research, as it plays a crucial role in ensuring better quality of life and care for patients, better treatment outcomes, societal equality, and patient rights. | 2 | 23 | |||
 | Anu Niemi Executive Director, EuropaDonna Finland | 1 | Anu Niemi represents cancer patients and the patient organisation Breast Cancer Association - Europa Donna Finland. She is a breast cancer survivor. | 2 | 29 | |||
 | Vincenzo Cerullo Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy, UH | 1 | VC is professor in biological Drug development, head of the Drug Reserach Program and group leader of IVTLab at Faculty of Pharmacy; he is also PI in Translational Immunology Program (TRIMM) at faulty of medicine and co-leader at iCAN flagship in the immunephenotyping stream. Finally, he is the scientific founder of VALO therapeutics, a spin-off company from the University of Helsinki. VC started IVTLab in 2013 and since then he has received prestigious grants such as two ERCs (Consolidator and PoC) and Jane and Aatos Errko foundation grant among others. IVTLab has produced in these years more than 50 invention disclosures and patents and tens of publications in prestigious peer-reviewed journal such as Nature Communication, ACS Nano, Cancer Research and Cancer Research Immuniology among others. VC has been ranked N9 in the world N3 in Europe and N1 in Finland as expert in the filed of oncolytic virotherapy by expertscape.
| 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
 | Caroline Heckman Research director | 1 | Caroline Heckman, PhD, is a Research Director at FIMM-HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, where she leads the Personalized Medicine and Translational Research Group and Functional Precision Medicine in Cancer Grand Challenge. She is an iCAN affiliated PI, where she leads the ex vivo drug screening efforts. She has extensive expertise in biomarker discovery and drug repositioning for cancer with a focus on hematological maligancies.
| 1 | 2 | 9 | ||
 | Sirpa Leppä Professor of Oncology, Head Physician, and group leader of the lymphoma biology and survival research group | 1 | Scientifically recognized for work on cell signalling, clinical lymphoma trials and biomarkers. Ongoing special research interests are to characterize molecular backround for treatment refractory lymphomas and to establish novel biomarker driven therapies. Leadership experience from heading HUH clinical trial unit, UH Dept of Oncology, Nordic Lymphoma Group large cell working group and Finnish Lymphoma Group.
| 1 | 2 | 12 | ||
 | Johan Lundin Research Director | 1 | Pioneer in virtual microscopy, mobile microscopy, and digital pathology. Digital diagnostics of cancer and infectious diseases, cancer biomarkers and applied artificial intelligence. Co-founder of Aiforia Technologies.
| 1 | 2 | 13 | ||
 | Satu Mustjoki Professor of Translational Hematology, Director of Translational Immunology Program | 1 | Principal investigator and leader of the Hematology Research Unit Helsinki laboratory. Director of the Translational Immunology Research Program. Research interests: malignant blood diseases and related autoimmune disorders. Recent work on tumor immunological profiling and improving immunomodulatory treatments. Has received prestigious ERC Consolidator and Proof-of-Concept grants. Academic coordinator of several IO-clinical sub studies.
| 1 | 2 | 14 | ||
 | Kari Alitalo Academy Professor, UH. | 1 | Global leader in lymphangiogenesis research and widely known for his discoveries of several receptor tyrosine kinases, growth factors and receptors. Highest cited Finnish scientists; Centre of Excellence Director, member in several prestigious foreign Academy of Science, including the National Academy of Science USA, the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, Belgium and the Academy of Europe
| 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
 | Olli Carpén Scientific Director, Helsinki Biobank | 1 | Internationally recognized for his activities in clinical biobanks; serves as the Finnish delegate in the BBMRI-ERIC Clinical biobanks subcommittee and Working Group of Archived Tissues, and BBMRI Assembly of Members
| 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Juha Klefström Research Director | 1 | Specialized in breast cancer biology, synthetic lethality in cancer therapeutics and immuno-oncology combination approaches. An international expert in MYC biology, apoptosis and ex vivo approaches to model tumor biology, microenvironment and treatment responses.
| 1 | 2 | 11 | ||
 | Kimmo Porkka Professor of Clinical Hematology & Director, eCAR4me/CleverHealth Network | 1 | Professor of Clinical Hematology at the University of Helsinki. Prof. Porkka`s research interests relate to molecularly targeted therapies of hematological malignancies and the use of artificial intelligence in modern diagnostics. He is the principal investigator in several Phase I-III clinical studies.
| 1 | 2 | 16 | ||
| Pia Vahteristo University Researcher | 1 | Specialist in gynecological tumor genomics. Has significantly contributed to the determination of the genomic landscape of uterine leiomyomas and leiomyosarcomas. Also known for her previous work on breast cancer predisposition. Principal Investigator at the Applied Tumor Genomics Research Program. Leader of the iCAN pilot project #Uterine Leiomyomas. Adjunct Professor in Molecular Genetics. H-index: 36.
| 1 | 2 | 17 | ||
 | Mark Daly Director, FIMM; Member, Broad Institute; Associate Professor & Chief, Analytical & Translational Genetics Unit, MGH/ /Harvard Medical School | 1 | Mark has made seminal discoveries in understanding the details of the structure of the human genome and developing software tools to analyze the impact of genetic variations on various disease, with special interest in inflammatory bowel disease and psychiatric disorders. Recently he has been involved in identifying and validating genetic risk predictors in breast and prostate cancer. | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
 | Pekka Katajisto Associate professor in aging biology, Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, UH | 1 | Katajisto has made seminal discoveries in the cross-talk between epithelial stem cells and surrounding cells in the gastrointestinal microenvironment and its regulation by metabolism and in tumorigenesis. His goal is to unravel whether stem cells have developed special mechanisms to reduce damage accumulation, and if the communication between stem cells and neighbors (niche) could provide points for intervention in aging related diseases.Director of the Finnish Academy Centre of Excellence in Stem Cell Metabolism | 1 | 2 | 10 | ||
 | Tero Aittokallio Senior Researcher, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland Helsinki Institute for Information Technology | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |||
 | Mikaela Grönholm Docent, Ph.D | 1 | MG has Ph.D. in biomedicine and is a docent in cell biology, working as a senior scientist with expertise in T cell biology and molecular mechanisms of cancer. She leads the project developing complex organoid platform building for immunotherapy testing in the ImmunoViroTherapy Lab. She has supervised several Ph.D. theses and received awards for research and as a supervisor and teacher.
| 1 | 41 | |||
| Nina Linder Associate prof., Senior Researcher | 1 | Molecular medicine and cancer biomarker research. Previous experience as a Medical Advisor within the pharmaceutical industry with involvement in early phase clinical trials for novel targeted molecular cancer therapeutics. Current research involves the development of novel artificial intelligence-based diagnostic solutions for cancer and infectious diseases..
| 1 | 59 | |||
| Teijo Pellinen Senior Researcher | 1 | Teijo is a senior researcher with a strong background in cell and molecular biology of cancer. His current work is focusing on molecular pathology, multiplexed tissue imaging and digital image analysis. He has recently developed a novel multiplexed immunohistochemistry staining and imaging technique, which is also being offered as a service platform at his institute, where he supervises laboratory technicians and PhD students. Teijo is actively collaborating with many national and international researchers in digital tissue profiling of many types of cancers.
| 1 | 67 | |||
| Vilja Pietiäinen Docent, Ph.D | 1 | VP is a senior researcher & team leader of the Precision medicine group (PI Olli Kallioniemi), Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, UH (2014-). She is a co-director of FIMM HiLIFE High Content Imaging and Analysis unit. She develops new cutting-edge quantitative technologies and solutions to understand the drug vulnerabilities and resistance in precision medicine of solid tumors at single cell level. These include functional drug testing of patient -derived cell models in 3D, and spatial single cell transcriptomics and genomics to study the drug -resistant cancer cell population, empowered by multidisciplinary team science and international cross-laboratory validation of assays (partner of ERA PerMed COMPASS project, 2019-2022).
| 1 | 70 | |||
| Outi Kilpivaara Group Leader, Sigrid Jusélius Senior Researcher | 1 | Outi Kilpivaara, PhD (doc.) leads the hematological genetics group, with Ulla Wartiovaara-Kautto as the clinical PI, in Applied Tumor Genomics Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. She has almost twenty years of experience in cancer genetics, in several tumor types. She started specializing in hematological genetics in 2007 as a post-doc in Ross Levine’s lab at MSKCC, New York and did another post-doc in Lauri Aaltonen’s lab before starting as a principal investigator in 2015. Her current research interests are germline predisposition to hematological malignancies, rare syndromes with hematological phenotypes, and understanding the pathological mechanisms leading to these diseases.
| 1 | 52 | |||
| Minna Koskenvuo MD, Docent, Resident in Pediatrics, HUS | 1 | Minna Koskenvuo is a senior clinician and clinical scientist in ped hem-oncology running a research group focusing on immune reconstitution and infections in children undergoing stem cell transplantation. She is the national PI of SIOP high-risk neuroblastoma protocol and responsible for nephroblastoma protocol locally in HUS. She is a PI of clinical trials of pediatric coagulation disorder drug trials too. She has a background of post-doc fellowship in Stanford University, CA, USA, as well as research projects in Turku Univeristy too.
| 1 | 56 | |||
 | Pirjo Laakkonen Principal investigator Director | 1 | Laakkonen lab focuses on understanding the molecular pathways responsible for the diffusive growth of gliomas and the metastatic spread of breast and lung cancers to brain. She holds several positions of trust and actively reviews grant applications for different national and international organisations. She is also the founder and vice chair of the Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association (FIBTRA). In addition to her research activities Pirjo Laakkonen is the director of the Laboratory Animal Center, University of Helsinki.
| 1 | 2 | 28 | ||
 | Antti Rannikko Chief of department and professor of urology | 1 | Antti Rannikko is the responsible clinician in the application. Specialist in prostate cancer clinical care and clinical and translational research. PI of the largest prospective prostate cancer sample collection in Finland (HUB). PI and co-PI in several clinical trials including ongoing Deducer trial (n-of-1 individualized medicine and drug repurposing trial) and ProScreen randomized prostate cancer screening trial.
| 1 | 72 | |||
| Samuli Ripatti Profeasor of Biometry | 1 | Director, Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics; PI, H2020 Project INTERVENE
| 1 | 75 | |||
 | Toni Seppälä GI surgeon | 1 | Toni Seppälä has a research focus on Lynch Syndrome CRC, in close collaboration with Prospective Lynch Syndrome Database. He is the secretary at the board of directors for European Hereditary Tumor Group. His home institution is Helsinki University Hospital where he works as consultant colorectal surgeon, adjunct professor and principal investigator at University of Helsinki Medical Faculty. Currently other scientific projects involve precision surgical oncology in the fields of circulating tumor DNA, solid cancer organoids & other cancer biomarkers. He’s currently on a research fellowship @Burkhart Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
| 1 | 80 | |||
 | Sahu Biswajyoti Academy Research Fellow | 1 | Biswajyoti Sahu, PhD, is Docent in Molecular Genetics, an Academy Researcher, and a Principal Investigator at the Research Programs Unit at University of Helsinki. Dr. Sahu is a molecular biologist by training and an expert in state-of-the-art functional genomics methods and their bioinformatics analysis for studying the role of chromatin structure and function in gene regulation that are highly pertinent for delineating the epigenetic reprogramming of the cancer genome. Dr. Sahu has long experience in studying molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in various cancer types and was instrumental in some early paradigm shift discoveries on the role of FOXA1 in prostate cancer progression and role of glucocorticoids in androgen signaling axis. Dr. Sahu is the person in charge of the preclinical functional genomics experiments in the project with over >15 years of molecular biology and >12 years of NGS experience. Dr. Sahu has published >23 articles in leading high-impact journals with over >2000 citations and h-index 16.
| 1 | 39 | |||
| Ralf Bützow Adj. Professor Department of Pathology, Helsinki University Hospital | 1 | Individualized therapy of cancer group/Bützow is senior consultant (Helsinki University Hospital) and adjunct professor (HU) of gynecological pathology. His group (4 senior and two postdoctoral scientists, 4 PhD students) aims is to improve classification of endometrial and ovarian carcinomas by combining clinical, morphological and molecular profiling using large, well characterized and unique patient/sample materials. The hypothesis is that refined diagnostics will improve the care of individual patients and have an impact on health economy and quality of life of carcinoma patients. He is also involved in a collaborative project (FIMM) for developing individualized therapies of solid tumors base on ex vivo drug sensitivity testing and multi-omics of ovarian carcinoma patients (n=31 today). He has published 208 peer reviewed articles of which 21 have been referred to more than 100 times (h-index 54).
| 1 | 40 | |||
 | Sampsa Hautaniemi Professor of Systems Biology, UH | 1 | A pioneer in developing and applying systems biology methods to translate medical data into knowledge and medical benefits. Develops machine learning methods to enable integration of various types of molecular data. Served in Steering Group for data management and high-performance computing for the Ministry of Education and Culture.
| 1 | 42 | |||
 | Päivi Heikkilä Clinical Pathologist | 1 | Head Physician, Chief of Pathology, HUSLAB
| 1 | 43 | |||
 | Micaela Hernberg Docent, Specialist in Oncology (MD, PhD). Helsinki University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dept of Oncology | 1 | Head of the Department in HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center, principal investigator in clinical phase I-III trials studying IO and targeted therapies in melanoma. Research interests: Melanoma, lymphoma, cancer immunotherapy, translational research
| 1 | 44 | |||
| Kirsi Jahnukainen Professor, University of Helsinki and Karolinska Institutet | 1 | Kirsi Jahnukainen is a professor in pediatrics at the University of Helsinki and a visiting Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Dep of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet. Her research group is exploring methods to predict and prevent late effects after pediatric HSCT. She and her colleagues have shown that survivors after pediatric HSVT are at risk of early gonadal, skeletal and vascular aging and frailty. Prof Jahnukainen's group will be contributing expertise in pediatric oncology, toxicology, late effects and basic biology of the human gonads.
| 1 | 46 | |||
 | Heikki Joensuu Breast Oncologist | 1 | Certified oncologist, professor of oncology. Has acted as the coordinating principal investigator in several national and international clinical trials on breast cancer, particularly on HER2-positive breast cancer. Translational research on breast cancer. An author in 194 papers on breast cancer listed on the PubMed.
| 1 | 47 | |||
| Olli Kallioniemi Prof., MD | 1 | Olli Kallioniemi is an author of 378 PubMed publications (with 42,848 citations, H-index of 102). He is a member of the editorial board of six journals and invited lecturer in over 100 meetings during the past 5 years. He has supervised 27 doctoral theses. Dr. Kallioniemi has been a director and a member of Centers of Excellence (Academy of Finland and Marie Curie Center grant) 4 times, a co-PI in 11 EU framework grants and in one IMI grant, and participated in 4 ESFRI infrastructure networks. OK is a PI at FIMM, heading the research group in cancer precision medicine, as well as the director of Science for Life Laboratory (www.SciLifeLab.se), a national infrastructure for life sciences in Sweden and professor in Molecular Precision Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet. He was previously the founding director of FIMM – the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (www.fimm.fi), as part of the Nordic EMBL partnership in Molecular Medicine. He is an inventor and co-inventor of 21 issued patents, with a focus on diagnostic technology development, such as FISH, Comparative Genomic Hybridization, tissue microarrays, cell microarrays and bioinformatic methods. OK is a member of European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the National Academy of Science and Letters (Finland), European Academy of Cancer Sciences as well as the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet.
| 1 | 48 | |||
| Marja-Liisa Karjalainen-Lindsberg Head hematopathologist | 1 | Adjunct professor in pathology, scientifically recognized work for lymphoma pathology
| 1 | 50 | |||
| Liisa Kauppi Associate Professor | 1 | Dr. Kauppi has a strong track record of investigating mechanisms of DNA damage repair and recombination in a variety of mammalian systems, including clinical specimens. She has >1500 citations and many high-profile publications, including in Nature, Nature Genetics and first-author publications in Science and PNAS.
| 1 | 51 | |||
| Aija Knuuttila MD, Docent | 1 | Aija is a spesialist in pulmonary medicine and allergology. Her strong research work focuses on the studys of lung cancer.
| 1 | 53 | |||
| Mika Kontro Clinical group leader (FIMM), Consultant (HUS), Finnish Cancer Institute Fellow | 1 | Mika Kontro MD, PhD, is hematologist (HUS), Cancer Research Fellow (Finnish Cancer Institute) and clinical group leader (FIMM). He oversees the MDS clinic at HUS and leads the nation-wide multicenter prospective AML trial (VenEx). He has broad experience in clinical trials and attended EHA Clinical Research Training in Hematology program 2017-2018. His work is focused on the detailed characterization of genomic, transcriptomic, and functional aberrations in AML and MDS.
| 1 | 54 | |||
| Selja Koskensalo GI surgeon | 1 | She is a consultant at colorectal cancer unit at Jorvi Hospital
| 1 | 55 | |||
| Anna Lepistö Docent, Gastroenterological Surgeon | 1 | She is the head of colorectal cancer unit at Meilahti Hospital
| 1 | 58 | |||
| Mikko Loukovaara Gyneacologist | 1 | He is a gynecological oncologist/surgeon responsible for endometrial cancer treatment at HUS Women's hospital
| 1 | 60 | |||
| Harri Lähdesmäki Associate professor of computational science | 1 | Principal investigator and group leader of Computational Systems Biology research group. Extensive expertise in developing methods for computational biomedicine, synthetic biology and probabilistic modeling and statistical machine learning.
| 1 | 57 | |||
 | Johanna Mattson Director, HUS-CCC | 1 | Specialized on the care of the breast cancer, including its follow-up and fertility. A pioneer in developing mobile software for cancer patients´ PROS in close collaboration with startups. EU collaboration in the resilience of cancer patients (BOUNCE).
| 1 | 2 | 26 | ||
| Tuomo Meretoja Head of Breast Surgery | 1 | Specialized in breast cancer surgery and clinical prediction models in breast cancer. Chair of FinnGen oncology expert group.
| 1 | 63 | |||
| Tuomas Mirtti Docent, MD | 1 | TM is a MD and pathologist at HUSLAB. He has a long-term expertise on urological cancers and is responsible for coordinating of tissue sampling and he is a PI at the OncoSYS.
| 1 | 64 | |||
| Antti Mäkitie Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital | 1 | Expert in head and neck oncology and is in charge of the collection of salivary gland tumors for this proposal. He is the Chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital and Principal Investigator at the ONCOSYS research program at the University of Helsinki.
| 1 | 61 | |||
| Mikko Mäyränpää MD, Docent | 1 | 1 | 62 | ||||
| Minna Nyström Professor | 1 | She is the professor of genetics and epigenetics at the UH on Viikki Campus, and CEO of the LSCancerDiag
| 1 | 66 | |||
| Katriina Peltola Specialist in Oncology (MD, PhD) | 1 | Senior consultant at Early Phase Trial Unit, Helsinki University Central Hospital. Extensive expertise in clinical drug studies related to immuno-oncological treatments.
| 1 | 68 | |||
| Päivi Peltomäki Professor | 1 | She is the professor of medical epigenetics at the UH and a consulting physician for HUSLAB on next-generation sequencing assays of colorectal cancer predisposition.
| 1 | 69 | |||
| Laura Renkonen-Sinisalo GI surgeon | 1 | She is a consultant at colorectal cancer unit at Meilahti Hospital
| 1 | 74 | |||
| Ari Ristimäki Professor, MD, Gastrointestinal pathology | 1 | He is a GI pathologist at HUS and full professor of pathology at University of Helsinki
| 1 | 76 | |||
| Jari Räsänen MD, Docent | 1 | Dr Räsänen is chief of thoracic surgery, with special emphasis on research in esophageal and thoracic surgery, with translational approach. He completed his advanced thoracic surgery fellowship in University of Pittsburgh and UPMC.
| 1 | 73 | |||
| Mikko Rönty MD, Docent , Department of Pathology, Helsinki University Hospital | 1 | Mikko's main work is within the field of diagnostic/surgical pathology, with a focus on soft tissue and lung pathology. He has nearly 20 years of experience in clinical pathology. His research experience includes basic research dealing with cytoskeletal proteins. Later he has participated in applied research focusing on lung cancer and lung parenchymal diseases.
| 1 | 77 | |||
| Pipsa Saharinen Associate professor, Department of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, UH | 1 | Associate Professor and principal investigator at UH, Faculty of Medicine, Translational Cancer Medicine Program. An expert in vascular biology and an international leader in the field of angiopoietin growth factors.
The Saharinen lab aims to understand fundamental mechanisms of blood and lymphatic vascular maintenance and their dysregulation in disease. The group has strong expertise in creating and using genetic mouse, tissue and cellular models. The group combines state-of-the-art single cell technologies, light-sheet, multiphoton and in vivo microscopy with in vivo models to study vascular stability and leakage in cancer and severe inflammation. Previous discoveries revealed novel mechanisms of vascular leak and its therapeutic inhibition (Nat Commun 2015, J Clin Invest 2016, PNAS 2018). PS is the recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant (2018-2022) and the chair of an UH-level infrastructure platform of pre-clinical in vivo animal imaging, which is part of the Finnish Biomedical node of EuroBioimaging.
For this application, the group has expertise in mouse and cellular cancer models, and special expertise in culturing lung cancer organoids. Post-doctoral research scientist Niina Santio (PhD in cancer biology in Päivi Koskinen group, Turku) in Saharinen Lab, visited the Pasi Janne lab, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, to learn the technology in early 2019. The Saharinen lab has ongoing projects focusing on lung metastasis and interest in developing lung organoid models for cancer and inflammation.
| 1 | 78 | |||
| Ville Sallinen MD, Docent, Resident in GI surgery, HUS | 1 | He is a hepato-biliary-pancreatic and transplantation surgeon (+gastric) at HUS, and a PI in medical faculty
| 1 | 79 | |||
| Raija Silvennoinen Consultant hematologist, HUS | 1 | Raija Silvennoinen, MD, PhD is a consultant hematologist at HUS. She currently leads two nation-wide phase II investigator initiated studies in multiple myeloma, and led two previous phase II studies. She has earlier chaired the Finnish Myeloma study group and is on the board of the Nordic Myeloma Study Group.
| 1 | 82 | |||
 | Jing Tang Assistant professor Academy of Finland Research Fellow | 1 | Jing Tang, PhD, is assistant professor of statistics in the Faculty of Medicine and docent of biometry in the Faculty of Science. He is awardee of the prestigious ERC Starting Grant 2016. . He has highly cited 51 journal publications (Total citations: 2239, H-index: 24. Total impact factors: >370), 17% of which are with first author and 34% are with correspondence author.
| 1 | 83 | |||
| Mervi Taskinen Chief of Pediatric Hem-Oncology and HSCT, HUS | 1 | Mervi Taskinen is the chief of the pedatric hem-oncology and HSCT unit. She is also the senior scientist being the national PI of the international ALL protocol. She has clinical studies concerning hematological malignancies, immunodeficencies, Wilms tumors and widely aspects concerning the outcome and late effects of pediatric cancer patients.
| 1 | 84 | |||
| Ulla Wartiovaara-Kautto Chief physician and Head of Division of Hematology Helsinki University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center (act.), clinical-PI in Applied Tumor Genomics Research Program | 1 | Ulla Wartiovaara-Kautto, MD PhD (doc.) is the acting Chief physician and Head of Division of Hematology in the HUH Comprehensive Cancer Center. She runs a research group with doc., PI Outi Kilpivaara focusing on genetics in hematological diseases. She received her PhD in 1999 and medical degree in 2000. Thereafter she specialized in clinical chemistry and further in clinical hematology. She worked as a specialist and head of section before her affiliation as acting chief physician in 2019. Her special competence areas within hematology include acute lymphoblastic leukemia and inherited blood diseases. UWK established the Joint Adult and Pediatric Rare Hematologic Disease Clinic together with professor Kirsi Jahnukainen and leads the care of adult patients there. UWK chairs monthly national board meetings of germline-derived hematological diseases in Finland. She is the Finnish/Nordic representative in the Nordic and European working groups of acute lymphoblastic leukemia as well as an active member in the Nordic and European Working Groups of Germline Predisposition on Myeloid Malignancies. She currently supervises five post-graduate (PhD) studies. She is also the principal investigator in five multinational clinical trials. Her publications are on hematology and hematological genetics.
| 1 | 89 | |||
| Emmy W. Verschuren PhD, PI | 1 | Emmy is a translational cancer researcher with a MSc in immunology, PhD in tumour biology from ICRF/UCL (former CRUK) in 2003, postdoc experience in from UCSF, Stanford University and Genentech Inc., and FIMM-EMBL international Group Leader since 2009. She coordinated the IMI-PREDECT public-private partnership that aimed to develop ex vivo complex tumour models from 2011-2016, and served on the executive board of the EACR from 2012-2018. As FIMM strategic research coordinator, she mediates FIMM collaborations with the Nordic EMBL partnership in Molecular Medicine and the EU-LIFE alliance. Her group studies NSCLC histopathology-related heterogeneity in the context of their cell-of-origin, and develops diagnostic applications of ex vivo cell, tissue, and organoid models of NSCLC - with an overall aim to ameliorate personalised treatments or interventions.
| 1 | 87 | |||
| Kim Vettenranta Professor, Children's hospital, UH & HUS | 1 | Kim Vettenranta is a professor and senior scientist and senior clinician in pediatric hem-oncology and HSCT. He is the national PI of the previous ALL protocol, and PI of the previoous SIOP HR neuroblastoma protocol. Currently he is the PI the CART cell protocol. He is also running a research team in HY in collaboration with the Finnish Red Cross.
| 1 | 88 | |||
| Markus Vähä-Koskela Senior researcher | 1 | Markus Vähä-Koskela is a senior researcher/coordinator at FIMM with solid background in cancer immunology and immunotherapy. Working at FIMM since 2015 in close collaboration with the groups of Krister Wennerberg, Tero Aittokallio, Jing Tang and Satu Mustjoki, MVK has gained significant insight into leukemia precision medicine (e.g Tambe, 2020, Leukemia; Dufva, 2020, Cancer Cell; Tanoli, 2020, Brief Bioinform). MVK manages independent industrial projects, and co-supervises several PhD students
| 1 | 85 | |||
| Anna Vähärautio Academy of Finland Research fellow, Principal Investigator | 1 | Dr Vähärautio is an Academy of Finland Reserach Fellow focused on understanding HGSOC in a single cell resolution. Published 15 peer-reviewed articles with 1,207 citations, thus with on average ca. 80 citations per article. Highest journal impact factor (2018 edition) for first-authored paper: 28.467 (Nature Methods; Kivioja, Vähärautio et. al. 2012; 342 citations), also published a Report (Sur et. al. 2012; 2014; 129 citations) and wrote a Perspective (Vähärautio and Taipale, 2015) on Science (impact factor 41.04).
| 1 | 86 | |||
| Pauli Puolakkainen Professor, Department of Surger | 1 | 1 | 71 | ||||
| Hanna Seppänen University Researcher, CAN-PRO - Translational Cancer Medicine Program | 1 | 1 | 81 | ||||
| Peeter Karihtala Professor, Research Director, UH & HUS | 1 | 1 | 49 | ||||
| Paula Eerola Vice Rector, UH | 1 | 2 | 18 | ||||
| Tom Böhling Vice Rector, UH | 1 | 2 | 24 | ||||
| Markku Mäkijärvi Chief Medical Officer, HUS | 1 | 2 | 19 | ||||
| Anne Pitkäranta Director of research, HUS | 1 | 2 | 21 | ||||
| Veli-Matti Ulander Administrative Chief Physician , HUS | 1 | 2 | 25 | ||||
| Risto Renkonen Dean, Faculty of Medicine, UH | 1 | 2 | 20 | ||||
| Marjukka Myllärniemi Vice dean, Faculty of Medicine, UH | 1 | 1 | 2 | 27 | |||
| Olli Silvennoinen Director, HiLIFE, UH | 1 | 2 | 22 | ||||
 | Jonathan Knowles Chairman of the Access Committee, Genomics England; Visiting Professor, University of Oxford | 1 | Conceived the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) funding scheme in the EU. World leading expert in personalized medicine and immunotherapeutic cancer drug repurposing. Finnish Distinguished Professorship (FiDiPro) in Personalized Medicine. Has received a prestige fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the medical sciences. | 3 | 30 | |||
| Francesca Buffa Professor of Computational Biology and Cancer Genomics, University of Oxford | 1 | 3 | 33 | ||||
| René Medema Director of Research, professor, Netherlands Cancer Institute & Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital | 1 | 3 | 35 | ||||
| Bettina Ryll Chair of the ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group | 1 | 3 | 37 | ||||
| Pasi Jänne Director, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Scientific Director, Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science; Dana Farber Cancer Institute | 1 | 3 | 34 | ||||
| Steven Myint Physician, Business Mentor & investor, Senior Fellow, A*STAR, Board Member on several startups, Chairman, Liquid Biopsy Committee, A*STAR | 1 | 3 | 36 | ||||
| Karin de Visser Professor, Netherlands Cancer Institute | 1 | 3 | 38 | ||||
| Mika Mustonen FICAN South Director | 1 | 1 | 32 | ||||
 | Milla Koistinaho Chief Operating Officer Helsinki Innovation Services Ltd | 1 | Over 15 years of experience in commercializing biomedical inventions and developing business models. Member of founding team in three start-up companies based on academic, cutting edge science in Finland. She has vast experience in the innovation pipelines in academia and industry, both in Finland and the USA. ' | 1 | 31 |