Principal Investigator

Kari obtained his Ph.D. from University of Helsinki 2011. In his doctoral research Kari investigated mesenchymal and epithelial cell interactions in the context of gastrointestinal tumorigenesis. Kari continued studies on cell interactions during his postdoctoral training in the lab of prof. Michael Sixt (2012-2015) by investigating dynamic interactions during antigen presenting dendritic cell transmigration across lymphatic endothelium. At IST Austria, discussions with mathematicians inspired Kari to explore the architecture of lymphatic capillary networks. To expand these studies to molecular mechanisms, Kari moved back to Finland to the lab of prof. Kari Alitalo (2015-2018). In September 2018 Kari was awarded with Academy of Finland research fellow and principal investigator position in the Translational Cancer Medicine Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki.

Undergraduate student

Emmi received her Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology in 2015 and did her engineering thesis on extracellular matrix stiffness and intestinal stem cell interaction in Pekka Katajisto lab. She continued as a master’s student under supervision of Kari Vaahtomeri and studied lymphatic endothelial cell polarity during the expansion of lymphatic capillary networks. She is completing her MSc in the University of Helsinki in 2019. In Vaahtomeri lab, Emmi is continuing her research on lymphatic vessel sprouting and branching morphogenesis.

PhD student

Inam is a PhD student investigating dendritic cell transmigration across the lymphatic endothelium with a special focus on chemokine CCL21 positive vesicles. Inam did his Master’s in protein chemistry and biotechnology from University of Oulu, Finland. During his master’s thesis, he studied the molecular characterization of microsomal triglyceride transport protein. During his master’s studies he was also awarded the innovations award 2017 at University of Oulu for proposing an immune system for refrigerators. Inam also has another Master's degree in Chemistry from Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan.