Ansioluettelo

Surname: Le Joncour                                                                      

First names: Vadim, Jacques, Mara

ORCID: 0000-0001-8153-8563                                                       

ResearcherID: X-6274-2019

Date of CV: 10.05.2026

Current employment

2023 – 2028  Team Leader Neo[plastic]brain team. HiLIFE, Neuroscience Center, University of Helsinki, Finland

University Researcher Neuroplasticity and Neurotrophic Factors lab (Dir. Eero Castrén, M.D., Ph.D.).

2024 – 2027 Co-Principal Investigator (with Castrén) iCAN-Plasticity: Neuroplasticity in clinical cancer. iCAN Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship Program

Previous work experience

2021 – 2023 Senior Researcher, iCAN Flagship Digital Precision Cancer Medicine, iCAN-Brain: Deciphering the Dialogue between Astrocytes and Brain Tumors. Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.

2019 – 2022 Research Council of Finland Post-doctoral Fellow, The Mechanistic and Transcriptomic Signature of Brain Tumor Invasion. CAN-PRO, University of Helsinki, Finland

2015 – 2019     Postdoctoral researcher. Research of novel molecular and cellular targets for glioblastoma and brain metastasis treatment. Tumor Progression and Metastasis Lab (Dir. Pirjo Laakkonen, Ph.D.), Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland

2013 – 2014     University lecturer, Inserm U982/ANiVas lab. (Dir. Hélène Castel, Ph.D.) University of Rouen, France

Research funding and grants

Obtained as principal investigator

2023 – 2027    Research Grant from the Finnish Cancer Foundation (EUR 231332) for Modulators of neuronal plasticity for brain tumor cells reprogramming. Awarded to Castrén & Le Joncour.

2020 – 2023  Research Grants from the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (EUR 24300) for Neurodevelopmental features of the Neoplastic brain. Awarded to Le Joncour.

2019, 2021       Personal grants from K. Albin Johansson stiftelse (EUR 10000) for Mapping brain tumor cells’ reprogramming and invasion. Awarded to Le Joncour.

2019 – 2022Academy of Finland Postdoc fellowship Investigating the transcriptomic and mechanistic signature of invasive gliomas, University of Helsinki, Finland (EUR 290,000). Awarded to Le Joncour.

Research output

2011 –             Total number of peer reviewed publications: 32

Preprints currently in review: 3; Published conference proceedings: 17

H-index: 17 (Web of Science) 19 (Google Scholar)

                        # times cited: 776 (Web of Science) 1063 (Google Scholar)

2021 – 2025     Invention disclosure # 1542/2024. BT-fUS, Functional ultrasound brain imaging for brain tumor detection and diagnosis, patent in preparation

Invention disclosure # 1530/2024. Gentle membrane receptor protein sample preparation for drug screening and binding affinity studies

                        Invention disclosure # 1121/2021. Navigator: Peptide-based delivery of diagnostic tools and therapeutics to brain metastases. Shareholder in the NAVIGATOR spin-off company. Patent pending

Awards and honours

2025              Selected flash talk at the World Federation of the Neuro-Oncology Societies, Honolulu, Hawaii (3000+ participants).

2022              Best presentation price at the Scandinavian Society of Neuro-Oncology (200+ participants). Helsinki, Finland

2019              Best talk award at the Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association (FiBTRA) (80+ participants). Helsinki, Finland

                      EMBO Molecular Medicine selected cover Vol. 11 Issue 6.

Commissions of trust, other key academic merits

2026              Appointed reviewer and jury member for the Maître de conferences titles (equivalent docentship) at the University of Aix-Marseille, France

                      Thesis committee member for doctoral researchers (Voutilainen, Aitta-Aho groups, UH)

2021 –           Senior evaluator for the EuroTechPostdoc2 Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship programme and the Swiss Cancer Research Foundation

2016 –           Review of 50+ research and review articles

2015 –           Scientific Board, Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association (FiBTRA)

Conference organization      

2020 & 2022  Organizer of the 1st & 3rd FiBTRA Virtual seminar

2015 & 2019  Organizer of the FiBTRA annual meetings (Helsinki, Finland, 80+ participants)

Membership to Societies and Research Groups

2025-               Member of the Society of Neuro-Oncology (#760462)

2023-2035        Member of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (#FENS44799)

2023-               Scientific board and shareholder of the biotechnology spin-off company NAVIGATOR, Finland

2015-               Board of the Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association

2019-               Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR #1065872)

2015-               Member of the European Association for Cancer Research (#EACR22659)

Koulutustiedot

2023: Docent/Adjunct Professor, Cancer Biology. Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki

2015: Doctor of Philosophy, Implication of the urotensinergic system in neo-angiogenesis and invasion mechanisms of high-grade glioma, Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, France

Tutkimuksen ja opetuksen kuvaus

Research supervision and leadership experience

Academic supervision

Ongoing:        Officially appointed principal supervisor of doctoral researchers Bergström (2025-2029) and Hovi (2026-2030). Doctoral Programme In Biomedicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.

                      Co-supervisor (with Castrén & Virenque) of doctoral researcher Runeberg at the iCAN-DOC Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship Programme

2015 –           Co-supervisor for Ph.D. researchers and local supervisor for visiting doctoral researchers (11 total), University of Helsinki.

2016 –           Supervisor of Master’s students (19 total), University of Helsinki.

Leadership

2023 –           Neo[plastic]Brain team leader, Camilla Bergström, Henriikka Hovi, M.Sc. (doctoral researchers), Beyza Pocan, Noa Da Fonseca, B.Sc. and Helmi Koivula, M.D. (Master’s trainees). Neuroscience Center, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, Finland.

                      iCAN-Plasticity co-supervisor (with Castrén). Team including Virenque, Ph.D. (postdoc), Bergström, Hovi and Rüneberg, M.Sc. (doctoral researchers) and Herman M.D., M.Sc., Venkatesan, M.Sc. (alumni, research assistants). Helsinki, Finland.

Teaching merits

2023 –           Teacher, MNEURO Master’s programme, University of Helsinki, Finland

15.09.2022     Teaching examination for the title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland. Score: 5/5

2021              UP1 Learning in Higher Education (University of Helsinki, Finland). Score: 5/5

2019              University of Helsinki DSHealth Career Day and Biotech Club, Networking in Academia for Ph.D. Students, Helsinki, Finland

2018 – 2022   Co-organizer and Teacher at the TMED-103 Cancer: from Biology to Research (TRANSMED International Master’s Programme, University of Helsinki)

Tutkimuskohteet

The brain can create new neuronal connections when saving memories or experiences. Unfortunately, brain tumors can do the same thing. Cancer cells can pretend to be neurons, connect to normal neurons and become resistant to medicine. But how do cancer cells transform into neurons in the first place? Can we stop this phenomenon and fragilize the tumor? We will first use patient gene expression data to understand the relationship between “neuron tumor cells” and their environment. We will then use our findings to create synthetic materials that simulate the brain environment in a plastic dish and study the mechanism of the neuronal transformation in patient-derived brain tumor cells. Brain diseases like depression are caused by abnormal neuronal connections. Drugs like antidepressants can cut bad connections, meaning they could also disconnect cancer cells from neurons in brain tumor patients. We will test whether these drugs could increase the efficacy of regular brain tumor medicine.