Dr. Kari Alitalo, Academician, Academy Professor, M.D., Dr. Med.Sci.
Dr. Kari Alitalo is a tenured Research Professor of the Finnish Academy of Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Helsinki, and a Director of the Wihuri Research Institute.
He was born in 1952 in Kuopio, Finland, and obtained M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki in 1981. He did his postdoctoral studies with Dr. Paul Bornstein in the University of Washington in Seattle (1981), and with Drs. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus in the University of California in San Francisco (1983). He was appointed as Professor of Medical Biochemistry in Finland in 1986, Research Professor of the Finnish Cancer Institute in 1987, Professor of Cancer Biology in 1988 and Research Professor of the Finnish Academy of Sciences in 1993. He was the Director of the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Cancer Biology between 2000-2019, the Scientific Director of the iCAN Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship between 2019-2022, the Director of the Molecular/Cancer Biology Research Program between 1999-2012, and the Director of the Translational Cancer Biology/Medicine Research Program between 2013-2023. He has served as the Director of the Wihuri Institute since 2013.
Dr. Alitalo is one of the most cited Finnish scientists and a global leader in research of blood and lymphatic vessels. He is widely known for the discoveries of several receptor tyrosine kinases, growth factors and receptors.
Photo by Mikko Mäntyniemi