I’m a cell and molecular biologist, docent in Molecular and Cancer Biology, and a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. I defended my PhD thesis in December 2021. My research focuses on head and neck cancers, the tumor microenvironment, and the development of personalized cancer treatments.
A major challenge in developing cancer therapies is that treatments that appear promising in laboratory and animal studies often fail to work in humans. One key reason is that conventional research models do not adequately reproduce the complex biology and microenvironment of human tumors. This limits the predictability of drug testing.
In my research, I develop human-derived, physiologically relevant cell culture models that mimic human tumors as closely as possible. These models can help predict the efficacy of drugs more reliably before they are tested in humans. During my doctoral research, I developed three-dimensional cancer cell models and investigated the use of human tumor-derived extracellular matrix in cancer drug testing. In my current work, I continue to develop these research platforms and explore new treatment combinations.
My goal is to make drug testing more predictable, reduce reliance on animal-derived research materials, and contribute to the development of more effective, patient-specific treatments.