People

Pia first discovered ”microparticles” during her PhD studies, while studying the role of collagen receptors in platelet functions including procoagulant activity. Platelet-derived EV staining of fibrin strands in thrombus-formation mimicking system of blood flow generated her first EV publication in  . In 2000-2004, she did a post doc in the University of Cambridge U.K, on platelet collagen receptors. Upon returning to Finland, she worked as an Academy of Finland –funded independent post doctoral researcher and research fellow with the aim to develop tools for integrin affinity states with phage display before becoming a university lecturer in Biochemistry of Health in 2008. By then, the field of EVs had geared up, enabling a return to her passion. Soon also others joined in the quest to understand the communication of the cells’ own social media, EVs, which generated the EV group in 2011. 

In 2016, the EV group jointly with  in FIMM was proud to open the world’s first  dedicated to EVs to offer our expertise to other researchers in Finland and abroad.

Since 6 February 2024, Pia is the President of the Finnish Society of Extracellular Vesicles ().

Johanna is interested in the EV-mediated communication between platelets and other immune cells and studies the biophysical and therapeutic properties of platelet-derived EV (PEV) subpopulations. Johanna’s research focuses on tailoring PEV generation with different platelet activations and establishing new methods for physicochemical and functional characterization of PEVs at the subpopulation level. Johanna has previously set up a novel asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation method for subpopulation analyses in the EV Group and EV Core () and during the .

Zeynep received her  in Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) disease from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Biology, Turkey. 

Zeynep has been working in the PLEASER project since 2022. She is using RNA sequencing and different cell-based functional assays to investigate the interaction between cancer cells and platelets aided through EVs in a 3D melanoma model. Zeynep’s other project in the EV group was to apply metabolomics to discover the candidate biomarker molecules in cancer EVs within the . 

Snehadri has been interested in the field of EVs since his Master's studies. He did his in the EV group, investigating the effect of different lipoproteins on the formation of platelet-derived EVs. 

In his PhD work, Snehadri has been exploring the role of EVs in the microenvironment of bone tumour (osteosarcoma) in 2D and 3D settings. He divides his time between the EV group and the Oral cancer research group (PI: Tuula Salo) in the Meilahti campus. 

Zhilin received her master's degree in oncology from Harbin Medical University, China, focusing on the promotion role of circRNAs in thyroid cancer.

Christina joined the EV group as a technical assistant to work with platelet derived EVs and their characterization before starting her doctoral studies. She is interested in the EV protein corona, a “molecular cloak” that influences EV functions and cellular interactions, and her PhD will focus on the protein corona on platelet derived EV and its implications for diagnostics and therapeutics.

Christina’s on lipid mediators included also method optimization for tandem mass spectrometry, providing a good foundation for research in EV proteomics.

Rosabella has been working for EV-Core since 2019 and branched out into EV-group in the summer 2021, helping with several projects as a technical assistant.

Outside of her work in the EV-group, Rosabella studies physiology at the University of Helsinki and is working on her bachelors thesis on 'Extracellular vesicles as biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases'. After that she will focus on her masters degree in neurophysiology while continuing to work with EVs at the EV-Core.

Helin has worked in the University of Helsinki since 2011 as a technical assistant, and joined the EV group in 2022.

She has a Master's degree in applied chemistry and biotechnology from Tallinn University of Technology.