People

I am a PhD (Docent), working as a tenured Associate Professor in Cell Biology, especially biological imaging, experimental models and animal physiology. I have established international expertise on the stress-protective roles of epithelial cytoskeletal keratins in the gut, especially intestine and endocrine pancreas in auto-immune diseases. My PhD is in Biology from Åbo Akademi University, and my postdoctoral and continued research training from Stanford University, School of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, where I developed an sinterests in bench to bedside reserach. I am leading this dynamic research team of talented scientists and students where we focus on molecular and physiological understanding of disease in the gut and related organs. I am interested in developing novel non-invasive pre-clinical and clinical in vivo imaging modalities and biomarker innovations for inflammatory intestinal diseases. I run an international Master’s degree program in Biomedical Imaging together with the University of Turku, and teach courses in microscopy and histology.

During the last 15 years, I have worked with various life-science topics including gut immunology, hormonal regulation and beneficial microbes, health promoting diet, obesity and cancer prevention. Together, this knowledge consists a basis for my current task in which I focus to study on inflammation-induced changes in colon tissue, especially on intestinal epithelial cytoskeleton. In addition, I am developing new noninvasive in vitro diagnostics based on these changes, inflammatory bowel disease as a main interest.

I’m studying how keratin filaments impact colonic epithelial cell architecture through the regulation of mitochondria, cell nuclei and membrane transporters. Given that mitochondrial dysfunction is linked to IBD pathogenesis, and colonic epithelial renewal and maintenance of barrier function are energy-intensive processes, I’m particularly interested in how keratins participate in maintaining colonic epithelial metabolism, with focus on mitochondrial bioenergetics.

I’m a PhD student in my final year. My PhD project title has been ”A link between world: cytoplasmic keratins and nuclear lamins in proliferation and colon cancer”. One of my main aims has been to establish a new K8 tissue specific knockout mice using the cre-loxP system, as well as analyzing the mouse phenotype. Aside from my PhD work, I have done work as an university teacher during 2021–2024 and I have a degree in pedagogics (teachers qualification), which allows me to teach biology, chemistry and geography in Finnish secondary schools. Additionally, I have supervised several bachelor’s and Master’s theses throughout my time as a PhD student.

My research is about understanding the role of cytoskeletal keratins in endocrine pancreas, focusing on insulin producing beta-cell processes and diabetes-related beta-cell stress. I have a background in Biomedical Imaging (MSc. degree/University of Turku, Finland), and have worked as Medical Imaging nurse in clinics. After doing internships in biology laboratories, I started my doctoral studies in Bioscience (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) which gave me the opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in preclinical research. To further sharpen my skillset and learn more about cell biology of diabetes, I expanded my network and have joined the diabetes research at University of British Columbia, Canada.

I joined the Epithelial Biology Lab as PhD student on a project which aimed to develop an improved intestinal epithelia specific keratin 8 knockout mouse model for colitis and colorectal cancer. During this journey, I have also been studying cross-talk between keratin 8 and tumor suppressing or promoting genes in the colon.

I study keratin intermediate filaments in the endocrine pancreas and their role in the glucose metabolism of beta cells in diabetes. In the Epithelial Biology Lab, I especially appreciate Prof Diana Toivola’s inspiring personality and passion for science.

I’m working as a Specializing Medical Cell Biologist at the Department of Pathology at SataDiag, Pori, Finland. The work includes mainly quality surveillance of pathological specimen preparation and staining and in-house validation of diagnostics tools and methods. As a part of my specialization, I’m conducting doctoral studies, where my focus is on epithelial keratins in colon diseases. My main research interests are the role epithelial keratins have in colon inflammation and tumor development and whether keratins can be used as diagnostic tools for these.

I study keratin expression changes in colon disease, with my main interest being alternative diagnostic methods utilizing keratin expression for colon disease detection. I am also interested in other keratin associated proteins and estrogens, and their role in colon disease.

I investigate what binding partners of K8 are responsible for its tumor suppressive effect in the colon. I also study how K8 participates in the mechanobiology of colorectal cancer. My specialties include the BioID proximity labeling technique and the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model.