Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM)

30/09/2026

Upcoming FIMM dissertation! 📢

MSc Yevhen Akimov from Tero Aittokallio's group will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "High-resolution profiling of cancer cell phenotypes via statistical analysis of DNA barcode data" in the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, on 2 October 2026 at 12:00.

Professor Rolf Skotheim (University of Oslo) will serve as the opponent, and Ville Mustonen as the custos.

🏛️ The public examination will take place at Athena, room 107 (Siltavuorenpenger 3 A, Helsinki) and can also be followed via a live stream.

🧬 Intratumoral heterogeneity plays an important role in cancer evolution, therapeutic resistance, and relapse. In his thesis, Yevhen Akimov developed new computational approaches and experimental methods for high-resolution profiling of cancer cell phenotypes using DNA barcode-based lineage tracing.

💻 The work introduces DEBRA (DESeq-based Barcode Representation Analysis), a statistical framework for analysing DNA barcode data from lineage-tracing experiments.

🔬 Using DNA barcoding together with multiple phenotypic assays, the research revealed diverse clonal subpopulations of ovarian cancer cells with different characteristics and responses to the chemotherapy drug carboplatin. The approach was also applied to pooled CRISPR-Cas9 screening to identify potential vulnerabilities in ovarian cancer.

💡 Together, these studies demonstrate how high-resolution lineage tracing can be used to uncover differences between cancer cell clones and identify potential cancer vulnerabilities.

Event page: https://tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6aa48b8da2959eeb6bdd34f7

E-thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/638322

29/09/2026

Geenit, ympäristö vai yksilön valinnat?

Lapsen vanhemmiltaan perimät geenit yhdessä kasvuympäristön kanssa ohjaavat monella tapaa ihmisen elämänkulkua. Miten perimä, ympäristötekijät ja elintavat vaikuttavat esimerkiksi terveyteen ja yksilön käyttäytymiseen?

Mikäli Tiedekulmassa viikko sitten järjestetty tapahtuma jäi välistä, tapahtuman tallenne on nyt katsottavissa Tiedekulman sivuilla.

Tapahtuma tarjoaa kolme näkökulmaa siihen, miten geenit ja ympäristö vaikuttavat elämäämme:

Mikä on geenien rooli sairauksien synnyssä ja hoidossa?
Samuli Ripatti, biometrian professori, Suomen molekyylilääketieteen instituutin johtaja, Helsingin yliopisto

Miten ympäristö muokkaa geeniemme toimintaa? Epigenetiikan jäljet terveydessä ja vanhenemisessa
Miina Ollikainen, epigenetiikan dosentti, Helsingin yliopisto & Lääketieteellinen tutkimuslaitos Minerva

Miten geenit ja kasvuympäristö ohjaavat yksilön valintoja? Esimerkkinä rikollisuus
Antti Latvala, kriminologian professori, Helsingin yliopisto

Sairastummeko syöpään tai olemmeko alttiita mielenterveyden ongelmille? Kuka päätyy tekemään rikoksia todennäköisemmin kuin muut? Entä miten ihmisen elintavat ja ympäristötekijät voivat vaikuttaa vielä seuraavaan sukupolveen? Lapsen vanhemmiltaan perimät geenit y...

25/09/2026

Catching up on some well-deserved Young Investigator of the Month recognitions from the summer!

Our July honoree, Aino Aaltonen, is a doctoral researcher in the Cognitive and Brain Aging group led by Eero Vuoksimaa. She studies early identification of Alzheimer’s disease using a multidisciplinary approach across psychology, neurosciences and epidemiology.

In her recent first-author publication "Genetic architecture of Alzheimer's disease-related plasma biomarkers" in Neurobiology of Aging, Aino investigated novel plasma biomarkers and their genetic architecture with Finnish twin data. Congratulations!

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The Young Investigator of the Month honor at FIMM is a monthly highlight of a FIMM PhD student or postdoctoral researcher for a recent significant accomplishment.
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23/09/2026

Meet the 2026 cohort of the FIMM-EMBL International PhD Programme!

Each year, we welcome a small group of early-career researchers selected through the competitive FIMM-EMBL International PhD Programme call.

The training starts with research group rotations, allowing the new doctoral researchers to spend six to nine months working in several FIMM groups before choosing where to carry out their doctoral studies.

Meet the six new doctoral researchers who joined FIMM in August, and find out what brought them here, what they hope to explore during their PhD and what they are looking forward to in the year ahead. 👇

For 17 years, the FIMM-EMBL International PhD Programme has supported early-career researchers as they begin their scientific careers at FIMM. This autumn, six new doctoral researchers have joined the programme. Let’s welcome them!

22/09/2026

📢 Upcoming FIMM dissertation!

MSc Aino Heikkinen from Miina Ollikainen’s group will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "DNA methylation links mitochondrial biogenesis to obesity and aging" in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, on 25 September 2026 at 12:00.

Assistant Professor Ida Karlsson (Karolinska Institutet) will serve as the opponent, and Professor Kirsi Pietilainen as the custos.

The public examination will take place at the following address: Biomedicum, Lecture Hall 3 (Haartmaninkatu 8, Helsinki).

🔬 Obesity is associated with alterations in mitochondrial metabolism, but the mechanisms linking these changes to long-term metabolic health and aging are not fully understood. In her thesis, Aino Heikkinen investigated how DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that regulates gene activity, is connected to mitochondrial biogenesis and obesity.

🧬The work identified links between DNA methylation, mitochondrial DNA quantity, and obesity-related traits, providing new insights into the molecular pathways underlying metabolic health and disease.

💡 The findings may help identify novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for obesity-related disorders and healthy aging.

Event page: https://tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6a8cd08ca2959eeb6bdd0dd4/aino-heikkinen-dna-methylation-links-mitochondrial-biogenesis-to-obesity-and

E-thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/637026

21/09/2026

MSc Joseph Saad from Caroline Heckman’s group will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "Identifying Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Patients with High-Risk Acute Myeloid Leukemia" in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, on 25 September 2026 at 12:00.

Professor of Hematology Raphael Itzykson, Université Paris Cité, will serve as the opponent, and Professor Kimmo Porkka as the custos. The thesis has been supervised by Dr. Caroline Heckman, Dr. Mika Kontro and Dr. Heikki Kuusanmäki.

The public examination will take place at the following address: Haartman Institute, lecture hall 2, (Haartmaninkatu 3), and can also be followed remotely.

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer for which effective treatments remain limited, particularly for patients with high-risk disease or treatment-resistant cancer.

💡 Joseph's thesis investigated why some AML cells respond to treatment while others do not, using genetic and molecular analyses of blood and bone marrow samples from patients.

🧬 The studies identified molecular features linked to treatment response and resistance and revealed potential new ways to target high-risk AML. The findings also showed that combining drugs with different mechanisms can overcome treatment resistance in some cases.

💊 This work may support the development of more personalised treatment strategies for patients with high-risk AML.

Event page: https://tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6a88dc0ba2959eeb6bdd069b/joseph-saad-identifying-therapeutic-vulnerabilities-in-patients-with-high-risk

E-thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/636929

18/09/2026

Meet Jeffrey Barrett, the new Professor of Computational Predictive Medicine at the University of Helsinki and ELLIS Institute Finland!

Barrett's career spans genomics, public health and industry. For him, the professorship represents a return to academia after several years in industry, but also an opportunity to bring new ways of thinking into academic research.

Barrett’s research will focus on using AI to analyse large-scale biobank datasets and discover biomarkers that can be measured in clinical practice.

His aim is to move beyond complex computational models and identify practical biological signals that help clinicians detect disease earlier, stratify patients more accurately and make better treatment decisions.

At the University of Helsinki, the professorship is hosted by the Faculty of Medicine and FIMM, Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE). Very warm welcome!

Computational predictive medicine aims to develop ways to detect diseases as early as possible, so that patients can receive personalised treatment while their symptoms are still mild.

11/09/2026

Geenit, ympäristö vai yksilön valinnat? Seuraa keskustelua Tiedekulmassa 22.9.

Tapahtuma tarjoaa kolme näkökulmaa siihen, miten geenit ja ympäristö vaikuttavat elämäämme. Tutkijoita haastattelee Alma Onali.

🟠 Mikä on geenien rooli sairauksien synnyssä ja hoidossa?
🔵 Samuli Ripatti, biometrian professori, Suomen molekyylilääketieteen instituutin johtaja, Helsingin yliopisto

🟠 Miten ympäristö muokkaa geeniemme toimintaa? Epigenetiikan jäljet terveydessä ja vanhenemisessa
🔵Miina Ollikainen, epigenetiikan dosentti, Helsingin yliopisto & Lääketieteellinen tutkimuslaitos Minerva

🟠 Miten geenit ja kasvuympäristö ohjaavat yksilön valintoja? Esimerkkinä rikollisuus
🔵 Antti Latvala, kriminologian professori, Helsingin yliopisto

Sairastummeko syöpään tai olemmeko alttiita mielenterveyden ongelmille?
Kuka päätyy tekemään rikoksia todennäköisemmin kuin muut?
Entä miten ihmisen elintavat ja ympäristötekijät voivat vaikuttaa vielä seuraavaan sukupolveen?

Lapsen vanhemmiltaan perimät geenit yhdessä kasvuympäristön kanssa ohjaavat monella tapaa ihmisen elämänkulkua. Miten perimä, ympäristötekijät ja elintavat vaikuttavat esimerkiksi terveyteen ja yksilön käyttäytymiseen?

Tervetuloa seuraamaan keskustelua Tiedekulmaan tai striimin ääreen tiistaina 22.9. klo 17-18.30! Tapahtumasta tulee myös tallenne Tiedekulman Youtubeen ja podcastiin.

10/09/2026

This week, many of our early-career researchers, group leaders and members of the FIMM leadership team have taken part in the annual meeting of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine.

This year’s meeting was hosted by the Swedish node, the Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS), and we have really enjoyed the warm hospitality of our colleagues in Umeå. Many thanks to the MIMS team for bringing us together!

The meeting gave us an opportunity to get to know Anthony Hyman, the new Director General of EMBL, whose keynote talk opened the programme.

It was also inspiring to hear about the progress made by the postdocs participating in NORPOD, the Partnership’s joint postdoctoral programme, and to see how their projects are developing across the different partner institutes.

We are already looking forward to the next meeting in Aarhus in 2027, hosted by the Danish partnership node, DANDRITE!

08/09/2026

We are very happy to welcome Tuomo Hartonen as our newest FIMM-EMBL Group Leader!

Hartonen leads research focused on artificial intelligence, population health and large-scale health data, with the goal of developing multimodal health foundation models that can help improve human health and healthcare systems.

Alongside advances in predictive modelling, Hartonen highlights fairness and privacy as one of the key challenges in translating AI into healthcare practice. He is actively developing approaches to mitigate potential biases together with different stakeholders.

Read more about his background and research plans:

FIMM is happy to welcome Tuomo Hartonen as a new FIMM-EMBL Group Leader. Hartonen leads research focused on artificial intelligence, population health and large-scale health data, with the goal of developing multimodal health foundation models that can help improve human health and healthcare system...