Group leader
I am a postdoctoral researcher with a background in molecular biology and cancer gene therapy. I have a strong interest in translational research and precision medicine. My current work focuses on the development of patient-derived 2D and 3D models of uterine leiomyoma, as predictive preclinical models for drug discovery and drug design. I mainly perform cell culture experiments, genotypic and phenotypic characterization of in vitro-generated models and high-throughput drug sensitivity assays.
e-mail: sini.t.ilves@helsinki.fi
I started working in Aaltonen lab in 2021 after graduating from the Master's Programme in Genetics and Molecular Biosciences. My research projects mainly focus on genetic alterations driving tumorigenesis in uterine leiomyomas. Our goal is to classify leiomyoma subtypes and understand mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis in these different tumor subtypes. My work includes both lab work and bioinformatics.
My research is focused on identification and understanding molecular changes, genetic and epigenetic, that are critical for tumor development and progression. Identification of new genotype/phenotype correlations also in other clinical conditions are among my research interests. The work involves analysis and interpretation of next-generation sequencing data, transcriptome and methylation profiling and various cellular works.
I’m a medical student and joined the group in 2019 to work as a research assistant. I’m currently working on updating and improving the group’s custom data management software, the purpose of which is to enable easy and efficient querying of the group’s vast amount of data.
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Tumor Genomics (Aaltonen) and Machine Learning in Biomedicine (Pitkänen) groups. My research focuses mainly on next-generation sequencing-powered disease genetics, which involves analyses of inherited and somatically acquired genetic variants of all sizes as well as software development. I got my formal education in the University of Helsinki from where I received degrees in computer science (BSc), bioinformatics (MSc), and cancer genetics (PhD).
My research projects focus on characterizing the genetic background of uterine leiomyomas. The work involves analyzing whole genome, exome, and SNP array data.
I received my Ph.D. in Lauri Aaltonen’s group in 2006. After conducting postdoctoral research first in metapopulation genetics and genomics and then in the multidisciplinary project focusing on drug resistance mechanisms in ovarian cancer, I returned “home” in 2020. My current work in the Aaltonen lab includes, among others, several long-term projects such as familial Juveline Polyposis and Serrated Polyposis syndrome. My goal is to make new discoveries from these valuable sample collections by taking advantage of the latest genomic tools.
I am a senior laboratory technician. My duties principally include experimental planning and research. I troubleshoot and develop better working practices and design protocols for complex samples to facilitate and improve the quality and the quantity of data. I maintain our sample collection, manage the use of DNA stocks and the preparation of samples, including library preps for various downstream applications. I undertake the comparison of data and analysis, including interpretation and evaluation of results. On a general basis I perform various molecular genetic techniques such as DNA isolations, quantification analysis, PCR, fragment analysis, western blots, isolation of RNA and sequencing.
I recently joined the group as a PhD student and I will be working with microsatellite unstable colorectal cancer.
I have worked as a research nurse in Aaltonen lab since Dec 2000. My responsibilities are genealogy work and sample management. I maintain and develop our database and combine cancer data with our sample database. As extra curriculum I am also the groups worry person, I co-arrange our recreational activities and I’m in charge of the safety issues.
I am part of our bioinformatics team. My main responsibilities are all data integrated actions and I try to create an illusion of easiness for our researchers, so that they wouldn't need to worry about their samples. Our data collection is ever increasing and the fluid use of it is a complex puzzle that we are trying solve on a daily basis.
I am a senior staff scientist working both in Aaltonen and Taipale groups. My research is Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from genetics and functional regulatory genomics perspective. I'm involved especially with genetic epidemiology and biobank research related projects and have special interest in functional genomics, gene regulation and functional understanding of non-coding genetic variation.
e-mail: juuli.raivola@helsinki.fi
I am a research nurse. While my work includes some genealogy and databasing tasks, I also support the lab by being responsible for ordering and compiling patient records as well as collecting and providing patient samples to the researchers such as fresh frozen tissue and FFPE blocks and slides.
I joined the Aaltonen lab as a postdoctoral researcher in 2018. I have a strong background in innate immune signaling and working with primary human blood cells and tissues in translational studies involving complex and familial inflammatory diseases. At the Aaltonen lab, my work will focus on studying the genetics and cellular mechanisms of cancer types strongly associated with inflammation, including colitis-associated colorectal cancer.
I work as a senior scientist / bioinformatican. My duties include basic research and related IT-support and -development. For my research I develop computational methods for processing and analyzing genomic information related to group's interests. In IT-support, I work with others to implement new methods and processes to improve our existing analysis pipelines. I also test new methods and instruct others in the selection and use of bioinformatics tools.
I am a PhD student with M.Sc degree major in human genetics. My project is part of the uterine leiomyoma regulatory genome project. My duties involve both lab work and data analysis of ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq and HiChIP from uterine leiomyomas.
I’m a PhD student in the early phases of my project. My main focus is on studying environmental causes of tumorigenesis by trying to detect patterns of genetic damage in the tumors of patients who have had substantial exposure to carcinogenic agents due to their work environment or lifestyle choices. Finding such patients for study involves utilizing data sets gathered by Finnish national institutes over the past decades. Another branch of my project concerns using the same data to recognize familial cancer clustering that cannot be readily explained by previously known cancer syndromes, the reason behind which we will then study at the genomic level.
My main duties involve genealogy work and databasing. I also have a variety of secretarial and administrative duties which include updating group's webpage, processing an assortment of paperwork, checking invoices, control of supplies, domestic and international travel arrangements as well as submitting travel expenses etc.
I am a PhD student in bioinformatics. My research is focused on retrotransposons in the human genome. I detect somatic and germline transposons from whole-genome sequencing data and study the relationship between cancer and retrotransposition.
I’m a PhD student having my Master’s degree major in genetics and specialty in bioinformatics. My own project is about methylation in colorectal cancer. As a bioinformatican I’m balancing between genetics and computers. My job is to formulate the biological research questions in such a way that computers can understand them. Even though R and shell scripts are pedantic and sometimes frustrating tools they are researcher's best colleagues in this task.
I am junior laboratory manager. My duties include taking care of reagent and supply orders. I also maintain our patient lymphoblastoid cell line collection.
Generally I perform various techniques such as exome library prepping, DNA/RNA isolations, PCR/qPCR, immunohistochemistry, fragment analysis and cell culture.
Postdoctoral researcher. I received my PhD in computer science from the University of Helsinki in 2012. Since then I have continued at Aaltonen lab as a postdoc. My work involves bioinformatics and computational data analysis of the various high-throughput data. My current interests are in statistical inference and data science.
I am the laboratory manager handling most of the techniques and equipment used in the lab. I am responsible for the chemicals and their safety handling, maintenance and service of the equipment and guiding of new members of the lab. In general I do various molecular genetic techniques, for example DNA, RNA and protein extractions, PCR, qPCR, Western blots, immunohistochemistry, cell culture, exome sequencing and bacterial methods, and I maintain the sample collection.