Prof. Timo is the PI of the NeuroCure team. He did his M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses on PREP studies (in the University of Kuopio), and his post doc periods in Helsinki, Belgium and USA teached Timo how to use different preclinical models of neurodegenerative diseases from protein level to animal models. Timo's passion is to find a disease-modifying drug for currently unstoppable neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Erik Wallen is the leader of NeuroCure Medicinal Chemistry, and has 20 years experience on different medicinal chemistry projects. Erik was also involved with earlier PREP inhibitor development in University of Kuopio, so he really knows what PREP and PREP inhibitor compounds are about.
Postdoctoral researcher
Dr. Hengjing Cui is the postdoc of NeuroCure lab. She has been working with PREP-related projects since 2019, when she arrived to Prof. Myöhänen's lab as a visiting post doc. Hengjing is supervising the lab activities and masters various techniques from cloning to behavioral studies.
PhD student
Biance Fastré is works for her PhD with Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation funded project on beta-amyloid and Tau interplay. Bianca is from University of Antwerp, and she made her master's thesis in Prof. Myöhänen's lab in University of Eastern Finland.
PhD student
M.Sc. Xiaowen Zhang started her PhD in the NeuroCure lab on 5/2024, and her project focuses on testing novel ligands to combat neurodegenerative diseases.
Nikita Sormunen is our latest PhD student in the team, working with cellular senescence project.
M.Sc. Henrik Häkkinen is a PhD student in medicinal chemistry, cooking up some cool novel ligands for our studies.
M.Sc. Egemen Sahim is currently in a 3-year doctoral pilot program, investigating the possibilities of our ligands in cancer models.
M.Sc. Fanni Pöyhtäri is working as technician in the Polku Therapeutics collaboration project.
Moreover, in today's science nobody works alone and we collaborate actively with other experts on an international and domestic level.
School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki
School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku
Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, University of Helsinki
Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, USA
Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden
George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), Baltimore, USA
Laboratory of Biochemical Medicine, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Institute for Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
Nicolas Copernicus University Torun, Poland
Medical University Vienna, Austria
We have been lucky to have several exceptional people in our lab:
Dr. Henri Pätsi, 2018-2025 - PhD student and post doc, now as a game programmer in Supercell.
Dr. Tony Eteläinen 2019-2023 - PhD student, now as a Medical Service Specialist at Biocodex.
Dr. Johanna Uhari-Väänänen 2019-2022 - Post-doctoral researcher, now as a senior scientist at Charles River.
M.Sc. Samuli Auno 2020-2021 - Commercial Champion in NeuroPREP project.
Dr. Tommi Kilpeläinen 2016-2021- PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher, now as a Medical Advisor at Bayer.
Dr. Francesca de Lorenzo 2020-2021 - Post-doctoral researcher
Dr. Mikael Jumppanen 2020-2021 - Post-doctoral researcher, now as a Technology Manager at Medix Biochemica
Dr. Hengjing Cui 2019-2020 - Post-doctoral researcher, now a post doctoral researcher in University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio.
Dr. Ulrika Julku 2014-2020 - PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher, now as a Senior Researcher at Neurotar, Helsinki.
Susanna Norrbacka 2014-2020 - lab technican, now as a lab analyst in VTT, Finland.
Dr. Reinis Svarcbahs 2013-2019 - PhD student and a post-doctoral researcher, now as a research associate at National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), Baltimore, MD; USA
Dr. Maria Jäntti 2017-2019 - now as a Senior R&D Specialist at LS Cancer Diag, Helsinki
Dr. Teppo Leino 1-9/2018 - now as a post-doctoral researcher in Department of Chemistry, University of Jyväskylä
Dr. Mari Savolainen, PhD student and post doctoral researcher, 2/2011-9/2016. Now as a Medical Manager in Novartis.
M.Sc. Christina Mechtler, Medical University Vienna, ERASMUS internship 2020-2021
M.Sc. Freke Mertens, University of Antwerp, ERASMUS internship 2020
M.Sc. Emmi Anttila, M.Sc. student, 2020
M.Sc. Charlotte Schilling, LMU Munich, ERASMUS internship 2020
Research assistant Veera Kulmala, 6-8/2020
Research assistant Titvi Räisänen, 6-8/2019
Research assistant Kalle Manninen, 6-8/2018
M.Sc. Lydia Zouzoula, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, ERASMUS internship 1-5/2019
M.Sc. Anna Kalinina, State University of Moscow, Exchange student 1-6/2018
M.Sc. Tiina Huovila, M.Sc. student 11/2016-4/2017
M.Sc. Marta Chavero, University of Barcelona, ERASMUS internship 8-12/2017
M.Sc. Sigrid De Lepeleire, University of Antwerp, Belgium, ERASMUS internship 2-6/2016
M.Sc. Saija Tiilikainen, M.Sc. student and lab technician 12/2014-8/2015
B.Sc. Patrycja Pabis, Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland – ERASMUS internship 1/2015-5/2015, and PhD student 1/2017-9/2017.
M.Sc. Ilari Korhonen – a research assistant 6-8/2014
M.Sc. Najda Selak, University of Zagreb, Croatia – ERASMUS internship 1/2014-5/2014
M.Sc. Sauli Pätsi – Pro Gradu project 1/2012-6/2012
M.Sc Lana Dokleja, University of Zagreb, Croatia – ERASMUS internship and technical assistant 1/2011-8/2011