People

Our group consists of members with various backgrounds and expertise - read more from our profiles below.
Päivi Tammela, Professor

Päivi received her PhD in pharmacy in 2004 and Adjunct professorship in pharmaceutical biology in 2005. She held the Academy of Finland Research Fellow position in 2014-2019, and is currently the professor of pharmaceutical biology at the Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy. Päivi is the head of the Bioactivity Screening Group at the Faculty of Pharmacy as well as the head of High Throughput Biomedicine Unit at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM).  She is expert in bioassay development and screening technologies especially in antimicrobial drug discovery.

Päivi Tammela's contact information and research profile

Päivi Tammela's ORCID: 0000-0003-4697-8066

Cristina Durante Cruz, University researcher

Cristina received her PhD in Food Science - Major in Microbiology from the University of São Paulo (Brazil), in 2007. After the graduation, she worked as molecular microbiologist at the Plant & Food Research Institute (New Zealand). In 2017 she joined the Bioactivity Screening Group. Her research project lines are focused on new antimicrobials for gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, including finding new targets, blocking known bacterial resistance mechanisms (e.g. efflux pumps) and overcoming bacterial biofilms. She supervises PhD, Msc and exchange students and contributes to teaching activities.

Cristina Durante Cruz's contact information and research profile

Cristina Durante Cruz's ORCID: 0000-0003-4655-8563

Polina Ilina, University researcher

Polina received her MSc (Biology) from Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia, in 2005. In 2015 she completed her PhD on the mechanisms of non-viral gene delivery at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki. In 2016 she joined the Bioactivity Screening Group where she has been working on the development of cell-based assays for antibacterial drug discovery, with a main focus on gram-negative bacteria. Her research interests include high throughput screening as a drug discovery instrument, antivirulence therapies, as well as discovery of drugs to eradicate intracellular bacterial pathogens.

Polina Ilina's,contact information and research profile

Polina Ilina's ORCID: 0000-0002-6705-6338

Karmen Kapp, University lecturer

Karmen received MSc (Pharm) in 2011 from University of Tartu, Estonia. In 2012, she began her doctoral studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki and received her PhD (Pharm) in 2016. Currently, Karmen is holding a position of university lecturer in Pharmaceutical Biology at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki. Her teaching responsibilities include courses in natural product drug discovery and microbiology. Karmen's research work focuses on natural product isolation, analytics and bioactivity screening. 

Karmen Kapp's contact information and research profile

Karmen Kapp's ORCID: 0000-0002-3239-7108

Paola San-Martin-Galindo, Postdoctoral researcher

Paola obtained her Licentiate degree in Pharmacy and Biochemistry from San Marcos Major National University, Peru. In 2016, she bagged a scholarship to investigate bacterial biofilms in the Exploration of Anti-infectives research group at the University of Helsinki. Subsequently, she initiated the doctoral studies and graduated in 2023. Her research approached the comprehension of the dynamics of bacterial biofilms with the microenvironment affected by chemical, physical and biological factors. Paola’s current project focuses on establishing functional platforms to both identify new antimicrobials and to investigate the bacterial colonization on novel material surfaces.

Paola San-Martin-Galindo 's contact information and research profile

Paola San-Martin-Galindo's ORCID: 000-0002-7742-6363

Maritta Keurulainen, Doctoral researcher

Maritta Keurulainen received her MSc (Microbiology) and MSc (Pharm) from the University of Helsinki in 1997 and 2024, respectively. Currently she is studying quorum sensing pathway AI-3 in uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) with the aim of finding new antimicrobials. 

Mingwei Li, Doctoral researcher

Mingwei received her MSc (Pharm) in 2016 from the University of Helsinki. Currently, in her doctoral studies, her research focuses on biofilm formation and intracellular bacterial community (IBC) formation of uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC).

Mingwei Li's contact information and research profile

Tuomas Pylkkö, Doctoral researcher

Tuomas graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2013 (M.Sc. in pharmaceutical biology). Currently Tuomas is working on enteropathogenic E. coli, designing screening methods targeting a protein-protein interaction, central to the adhesion of EPEC to host cells upon infection. Previously, in his Master's thesis, he created a screening method for a neurotrophic factor (trkB).

Tuomas Pylkkö's contact information and research profile

Saku Reunanen, Doctoral researcher

Saku received his MSc (Pharm) in 2020 from the University of Helsinki after studying Parkinson’s disease at the Institute of Biotechnology. Currently, in his doctoral studies, he investigates the effect of gut microbiota on the drug treatment of Parkinson’s disease in a collaborative project of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Saku Reunanen's ontact information and research profile

Outi Könönen, Laboratory technician
Kai Puhakainen, Laboratory coordinator
Current visitors and students
Alumni – Former postdoctoral members

Dr. Dorota Nawrot, currently at the University of Oxford

Dr. Päivi Järvinen, currently in the Chemical Microsystems Lab at the University of Helsinki

Alumni – Former doctoral researchers

Dr. Viviana Gatta, currently at UCB Pharma, Netherlands

Dr. Katja-Emilia Lillsunde, currently at MAP Medical Technologies/Curium Pharma

Dr. Andreas Helfenstein, currently at CGI

Dr. Sofia Montalvão, currently at Borealis AG

Dr. Susanna Nybond, currently at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology/SciLifeLab

Dr. Leena Hanski (née Pohjala), currently at UH

Alumni – Former Master students

Debby Agustin, Establishing a mechanism of action based-high content screening assay for the discovery of new antimicrobials (UH Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, 2023) 
Riina Laakso, Mustaherukan (Ribes nigrum), raparperin (Rheum spp.) ja metsämännyn (Pinus sylvestris) antimikrobiset vaikutukset patogeenisia bakteereita vastaan (UH, Faculty of Pharmacy, 2023)
Iiro Järvi, Study of antibacterial resistance development to diazaborine compounds (UH, Faculty of Pharmacy, 2023)
Helena Chic, Antibacterial properties of Allium sativum, Salvia rosmarinus, Filipendula ulmaria and Aegopodium podagraria extracts (University of Barcelona, 2023) 
Sanni Kylkilahti, Chiliuutteiden (Capsicum spp.) antimikrobiset vaikutukset Escherichia colia ja Staphylococcus aureusta vastaan (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2022)
Amanda Repo, Laajennetun todellisuuden käyttökohteet farmasian opetuksessa ja lääkevalmistuksen työkaluna (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2022)
Linn Rosqvist, Bioprospektering av marina ryggradslösa djur (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2021)
Tommi Kilpiö, Plant cell cultures of Capsicum chinense for the production of capsinoids (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2021)
Veera Lähdeniemi, Dialysis method development to assess reversibility of cytochrome P450 inhibition in vitro (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2021)
Walter Sundberg, Validation of high-throughput time-kill assay (UH Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, 2021)
Sonja Virtanen, Compounding parenteral products at pediatric wards - the effect of environment and used aseptic technique (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2020)
Jessica Dellavedova, Development of imaging-based assay for discovery of compounds active against intracellular uropathogenic E. coli (University of Milan, 2020)
Morris Calzioni, Development of fluorescent UPEC strains for imaging-based invasion assays (University of Parma, 2020)
Eline Freire Boullosa, eDNA- associated Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms (University of Antwerp, 2020)
Sampo Kurvonen, Miniaturization of a screening method to find novel inhibitors of E. coli efflux pumps (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2019)
Ulla Yrjänheikki, Assay setup for high throughput screening to identify novel efflux pump inhibitors against Escherichia coli (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2019)
Tanja Bruun, Meriperäiseen klavatadiini C -alkaloidiin perustuvien spirosyklisten yhdisteiden synteesi ja aktiivisuus melanoomasoluja vastaan (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2018)
Irene Tilli, Uudet bromityrosiinijohdannaiset ja niiden aktiivisuuden määrittäminen melanoomaa vastaan (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2018)
Heidi Mäkkylä, Gramnegatiivisten bakteerien viestintä ja AI-2-välitteisen signaloinnin häirintä (UH Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, 2017)
Jutta Karppinen, 3D liver cell models and automation as tools for drug development (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2017)
Jenna Kuusjärvi, Escherichia coli: Resistenssitilanne ja bioreportterimenetelmän hyödyntäminen antimikrobisen aktiivisuuden seulonnassa (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2016)
Laura Kenttä, Luminoivien bakteerikantojen käyttö antimikrobiseulonnassa (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2015)
Sara Božič, Comparison of bioluminescent Escherichia coli K-12/pTetLux1 and WZM120/pCGLS-11 strains in the evaluation of antibacterial activity (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2015)
Kira Holvikari, Characterising MRP2 inhibitors, stimulators and substrates from a library of natural compounds and pharmaceutical excipients (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2015)
Noora Jokinen, Assay optimization and screening for hepatitis C virus replication inhibitors from marine-derived substances (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2013)
Tuomas Pylkkö, Keskushermostossa sijaitsevan lääkekohteen tehoseulomiseen liittyviä erityispiirteitä (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2013)
Soile Kuosmanen, Assay optimization and validation for screening marine extracts against Mycobacterium smegmatis (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2013)
Katja-Emilia Lillsunde, Screening for marine-derived inhibitors of Chikungunya virus replication (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2012)
Elina Pekonen, Oksidatiivinen stressi Fusarium avenaceum –mykotoksiinien toksisuuden mekanismina? (University of Turku/TERBIO Master Degree Program, 2012)
Juho Tuhkalainen, Luonnonaineiden kemiallinen muokkaus lääkeaineiksi ja abietiinihappojohdannaisten biologisen aktiivisuuden tutkiminen (UH Faculty of Pharmacy, 2012)