Room B411
P.O. Box 21 (Haartmaninkatu 3)
00014 University of Helsinki Finland
marjukka.myllarniemi@helsinki.fi
eva.sutinen@helsinki.fi +358 50 427 1113
Marjukka Myllärniemi Research Profile
Marjukka Myllärniemi a principal investigator in the Lung factor research group. She is the professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Allergology at the University of Helsinki and the Vice-dean in Charge of Research, and a pulmonologist at the Heart and Lung Center, Helsinki University Hospital.
Eva Sutinen (M.Sc) is the research coordinator of Lung factor research group. She coordinates laboratory purchases, helps researchers with practical issues such as space allocation and coordinates the recruitment of clinical patients to studies in collaboration with biobanks and other groups and is in charge of data collection to clinical registries such as FinnishIPF, FinnIPF and the THX-Bio study.
Ilkka Ilonen (MD, Ph.D, FEBTS); Attending cardiothoracic surgeon, specialized in general thoracic and oesophageal surgery. He received M.D. from Univ. of Helsinki in 2008 and Ph.D from Univ. of Helsinki in 2011 for studies in Lung Cancer. He was board certified CT surgeon in Dec 2016 and was appointed as an attending/consultant surgeon for Dept. of General Thoracic and Oesophageal Surgery of Heart and Lung Centre at Helsinki University Hospital. He completed Advanced Thoracic Surgical Oncology Fellowship in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between 2017-2018. His research interest include non-small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma and oesophageal cancer. He has also served as council member of European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) between 2015-2017 and chair of Residents committee 2016-2017.
Laura Mäkitalo Research Profile
Laura Mäkitalo (MD, Ph.D.) is a doctor specializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology. Her earlier research concentrated on matrix metalloproteinases in inflammatory bowel diseases. Laura is currently working with quality of life studies in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension.
Ville Vartianen Research Profile
Ville Vartiainen (MD, PhD, MSc) is a postdoctoral researcher in Lung factor. He is currently working in the inhaler R&D group of Orion Pharma. Ville defended his thesis in 2018 and his research has focused on the development of inhaled anti-fibrotics and new formulation methods for dry powder inhalers.
Tuuli Hukkanen (MD) is a doctoral student in Lung factor. In her research her focus is on quality of life of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). She is specializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology at the University of Helsinki.
Jaana Kaunisto (MD) is a PhD student. Jaana is a specialist in pulmonary medicine and allergology. Jaana lives in Turku and works at Tyks Turku University Hospital in the pulmonary clinic. Jaana has been involved in building the FinnishIPF register since its inception. She takes care of the register of southwest Finland. Jaana is doing a doctoral thesis on the prevalence and prediction of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in Finland based on IPF inventory data.
Sanna Ilonen (MD) graduated from Helsinki University’s Medical Faculty in January 2016 after which she worked as a primary care physician in the city of Helsinki before starting her pathology residency in HUSLAB later on the same year. She has completed an internship in internal medicine in U.S. during 2017-2018 and she currently continues her pathology residency in HUSLAB in addition to continuing her research on malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Kati Mäkelä (MD) is a doctoral student and specializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology at the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral thesis project focuses on the connection between histopathological features and clinical information of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.
Hely Ollila is a doctoral student studying tumour microenvironment and clinical prediction features in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Hely is studying medicine at the University of Tampere and doing her doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki.
Juuso Paajanen (MD) is a specialist in pulmonary medicine and allergology. Juuso is preparing a doctoral thesis on mesothelioma including data on the incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma, its treatment practices, radiological changes and new potential biomarkers. In this study, a tight collaboration with the Helsinki Biobank has been formed.
Ida Belo (Pesonen) (M.D.) is spezializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset in Stockholm, while doing her doctoral dissertation at Karolinska Institute. In the research group she has been working on the pulmonary fibrosis register. In Sweden they have set up a similar register in September 2014. Therefore in a part of her dissertation she will compare Finnish and Swedish IPF-patients.
Kaisa Rajala (M.D.) is a specialist in Geriatrics and General Practice. In addition she has a special competence in Palliative medicine. Her research in Lung factor is on Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and it focuses mainly on IPF patients’ quality of life and symptoms. She worked as a Palliative consultant 2013-2018 in Helsinki University Hospital. Her current job is Chief of home care and palliative care ward in Hyvinkää. She also works in Terho Hospice.
Andreas Renner (M.D.) is specializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology. Previously he has worked at Krankenhaus Hietzing in Vienna, where his main research interests were asthma and cystic fibrosis. His recent move to Helsinki and joining Lung factor means a new focus on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Severi Seppälä (MD) is a specialist in pulmonary medicine and allergology. He works at Päijät-Häme Central Hospital in Lahti, Finland. His research focuses on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and especially its symptoms.
Mari Ainola, MSc (biochemistry), PhD is a docent in molecular and cell biology. Her thesis project focused on osteoclast mediated bone degradation in rheumatoid arthritis. Her research in Lung factor group is dealing with Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Noora Auranen is a medical student and she is studying at the University of Helsinki. She is doing her advanced studies in lung fibrosis.
Kristian Borenius is a medical student and he has been studying at the University of Helsinki since 2017. He also studies chemical engineering in Aalto University. At the moment he is doing his advanced studies on cell-free DNA in non-small cell lung cancer.
Nina Junttila is a research assistant at HUS Heart and Lung Center, including Lung factor. She is currently studying medicine at the University of Nottingham, having previously undertaken her bachelor’s degree in biology (physiology and neuroscience) at the University of Helsinki.
Laura K. Mäkinen (MD, Ph.D.) is a specialist in otorhinolaryngology (2016) and now specializing in pulmonary medicine and allergology at the Heart and Lung Center, Helsinki University Hospital. Laura has completed her Ph.D. in 2015 for studies in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. After that Laura has expanded her research to several topics in the field of otorhinolaryngology, such as rhinosinusitis, tonsil surgery in children, and salivary gland diseases. Now Laura is focusing on lung cancer research in Lung Factor research group, especially cell-free DNA and new potential biomarkers.