People

We are a dynamic group of researchers with a strong focus on finding novel disease modifying therapies for neurodegerative diseases.

Moreover, in today's science nobody works alone and we collaborate actively with other experts on an international and domestic level.

Timo Myöhänen

Principal investigator

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.

See Timo's profile on university's research portal

Erik Wallén

Co-principal investigator

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.

See Erik's profile on university's research portal

Henri Pätsi

Post doc

PhD Henri Pätsi made his M.Sc. thesis in PREP lab at the beginning of 2018, and continued directly as a PhD student in the PREP lab. Henri's PhD project was to find novel PREP inhibitor structures, and he successfully defended his PhD at 10/2024 and thereafter Henri has continued as a post doctoral researcher in the NeuroCure.

Cheng Zuo

PhD student

Cheng Zou is a recent PhD student from Wuhan, China, and he is working with cellular senescence in neurodegenerative diseases.

Xiaowen Zhang

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.

Collaborators

Domestic collaborations

Dr. Maija Lahtela-Kakkonen

School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland

Prof. Kai Kaarniranta

School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland

Prof. Jukka Westermarck

Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku

Prof. Arto Urtti

Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, University of Helsinki

Prof. Dan Lindholm

Department of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, University of Helsinki

International collaboration

Dr. Stephen Haggarty

Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, USA

Dr. Anna Erlandsson

Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden

Prof. Kathleen Maguire-Zeiss

Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC, USA

Dr. Brandon Harvey

National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), Baltimore, USA

Prof.emer. Anne-Marie Lambeir

Laboratory of Biochemical Medicine, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Prof. Poul Henning Jensen

Institute for Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark

Dr. Katarzyna Walczewska-Szewc

Nicolas Copernicus University Torun, Poland

Dr. Roland Hellinger

Medical University Vienna, Austria

 

Alumni members

We have been lucky to have several exceptional people in our lab:

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

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

Dr. Mari Savolainen, PhD student and post doctoral researcher, 2/2011-9/2016. Now as a Medical Manager in Novartis.

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