Current Position

2019 – 2022      Academy of Finland Postdoc Fellow. The Mechanistic and Transcriptomic Signature of Gliomas. With prof. Pirjo Laakkonen. Translational Cancer Medicine Research Program. Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland

Previous Experience

2015 – 2019     Postdoctoral researcher. Research of novel molecular and cellular targets for glioblastoma and brain metastasis treatment. With prof. Pirjo Laakkonen. Research Programs Unit, Translational Cancer Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland 

2013 – 2014     University lecturer & research assistant. Part time University lecturer for undergrad and Master students (201 hrs per annum), and Research assistant, Inserm U982 DC2N lab.

                        Faculty of Sciences, University of Rouen, France

2010 – 2015     Ph.D. student. Role of the urotensin II receptor in brain tumor progression with Professor Pierrick Gandolfo and Dr. Hélène Castel. Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, France

Fellowships and Funding

2019 – 2022    Academy of Finland Postdoc fellowship for investigating the transcriptomic and mechanistic signature of invasive gliomas, University of Helsinki, Finland (EUR 290,000)

2019                Personal grant for postdoctoral research from K. Albin Johansson stiftelse, Finland.

2017                Faculty of Medicine travel grant to attend the Primary and Secondary Brain Tumor Conference (Madrid, Spain). University of Helsinki, Finland.

2013 – 2014    University lecturer and research assistant grant to complete a Ph.D. University of Rouen, France (EUR 24,000)

2010 – 2013    Normandy Region selected Thesis Grant Seine-Maritime, France (EUR 72,000)

Education and Degrees

2010 – 2015     Doctor of Philosophy, (Ph.D. University of Rouen), Dissertation title: Implication of the urotensinergic system in neo-angiogenesis and invasion mechanisms of high-grade glioma

                        Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, France

                        Supervisors: Professor Pierrick Gandolfo & Dr. Hélène Castel

2008 – 2010    Master of Science, Cellular and Molecular Neurosciences - Neuroendocrinology, Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, France  

2004 – 2008     Bachelor of Science, Life sciences – Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Rouen, France

Students Supervision

Currently         Co-supervising Ph.D. student (P. Filppu, M.Sc.), at Translational Cancer Medicine Program, University of Helsinki, Finland

2017 –  2019   Local co-supervisor of the Ph.D. student A. Martins (M.Sc. from Exiris, Italy), as a part of her secondment in the Marie Curie program. Faculty of Medicine, Helsinki, Finland

2015 –  2019    Supervising PhD student (A. Ayo & J. Tanjore Ramanathan, M.Sc.), M.Sc. theses (M. Chevallot), and Undergraduate students (M. Hellén, K. Sarkkinen & A. Yilmazlar) at Tumor Progression and Metastasis Lab, Translational Cancer Medicine Program, University of Helsinki, Finland

2011 – 2014      Supervised M.Sc. theses (B. Poret & G. Lambert), Undergrad project students (A. Corla, D. Mussel) at the Inserm U982 DC2N, University of Rouen, France

Teaching Experience

Currently         Lecturer and co-organizer of the TMED-103 Cancer from Biology to Research TRANSMED Master Program. University of Helsinki, Finland

2013 – 2014    University Lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences including lectures (53h), practical courses (68h) and workshops (80h) on animal physiology, cell biology, histology and neurosciences for undergraduates and biostatistics for Master students. Rouen, France

Organization of Scientific Meetings

2019                Co-organizer, 5^th Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association symposium (Helsinki, Finland, 60 participants).

2016                Co-organizer, 2^nd Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association symposium (Helsinki, Finland, 80 participants).

2012                 Co-organizer, 15^th Scientific Meeting of the Normandy Doctoral School (Rouen, France, 200 participants)

Communication

11/2019           5^th meeting of the Finnish Brain Tumor Research association Helsinki, Finland Best talk award.

06/2019           EMBO Molecular Medicine selected cover Vol. 11 Issue 6. https://www.embopress.org/toc/17574684/2019/11/6

05/2019           Video methods published in JoVE. https://www.jove.com/video/59384/predicting-vivo-payloads-delivery-using-blood-brain-tumor-barrier

05/2012           IRIB scientific meeting, Rouen, France. Best talk award.

08/2012           Presentation at the 19^th International Symposium on Regulatory Peptides, Copenhagen, Denmark. DOI:10.1016

Selected collaborations

2019 –             Cell Death and Lysosomes Group, Lund University (Sweden)

                        Dr. S. Aits. Collaboration for the high throughput screening and AI-driven meta-analysis of novel molecules targeting the tumor cell lysosome.

2017 –             Helsinki University Hospital/Translational Cancer Medicine Research Program (Finland)

                        Dr. H. Seppänen. Preclinical therapeutic assessment of a lysosomal damaging agent for invasive pancreatic cancer treatment.

                        Dr. S. Karaman. Development of microfluidic devices, intravitaltools and in silico analytics solutions for the follow-up of diseases such as obesity-driven inflammation and tumor invasion. Published in: DOI 10.3791/59384

                        Dr. M. Barok. Preclinical evaluation of novel antibody-drug conjugates targeting HER2+ chemoresistant breast cancer. Published in: DOI 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-19-0207

2018 –             Turku Bioscience Centre (Finland)

                        Prof. J. Westermarck. Evaluation of the Blood-Brain-Barrier penetrance of novel PP2A activators for glioblastoma therapy. Published in: DOI 10.1093/braincomms/fcaa002

2015 – 2020     Helsinki University Hospital (HUS, Finland)

Prof. E. Hölttä & Dr. J. Eriksson. In vivo characterization of the role of CTRHC1 in melanoma tumorigenesis (Published in: DOI 10.18632/oncotarget.7604 ). In vivo characterization of P4HA1 implication in melanoma progression (Molecular Oncology, in press).

2013                Laboratory of Informatics, Information and Systems Treatment (Becquerel Centre, France)

Prof. P. Vera & Dr. P. Bohn (EA4108). Validation of a radiolabelled probe for tumor hypoxia. Published in: DOI 10.1016/j.bmcl.2013.05.015

2012                Cellular and Histological Cytopathology services (Rouen Hospital, France)

Prof. A. Laquerrière. Immunostaining techniques and analysis of paraffin-embedded patient tumor tissue. Published in: DOI 10.1038/onc.2014.433