People

Dr Eeva-Liisa Eskelinen, University Lecturer, Adjunct Professor, Group leader

From November 2017: Professor in medical cell biology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Finland

Eeva-Liisa Eskelinen has a long track record in autophagy field, in particular, in  elucidating the fine structure of autophagosomes and autolysosomes using electron microscopy. She completed her PhD in 1993 at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. She completed postdoctoral work in Göttingen, Germany and Helsinki, Finland, and became an independent investigator in Dundee, Scotland for 1999-2002. She worked  as a group leader in Kiel, Germany for 2002-2005. In August 2005 she started as a University Lecturer at the Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki. Finally, 1st of November 2017 she started as a professor in medical cell biology at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Finland.

E-mail: Eeva-Liisa.Eskelinen-at-Helsinki.Fi or Eeva-Liisa.Eskelinen-at-utu.fi

Dr Katri Kallio, postdoctoral researcher

Katri did her PhD on the cell biology of Semliki forest virus infection at the University of Helsinki in 2016. Katri is investigating the morphology of nascent phagophores using electron microscopy on different autophagy gene knockout cell lines. She is working in our group until end of August 2019.

E-mail: Katri.A.Kallio-at-Helsinki.Fi

Tahira Anwar, MSc, PhD student

Tahira made her MSc at the University of Rome in 2008. Her MSc thesis dealt with autophagy in tumor cells. Tahira studies the role of Beclin 1 subcellular locatization on autophagosome formation. She is using immunofluorescence staining, Western blotting, and correlative light-electron microscopy in her project.

E-mail: Tahira.Anwar-at-Helsinki.Fi

Sigurdur Gudmundsson, MSc, PhD student

Sigurdur did his MSc at the University of Iceland in 2016. His MSc thesis dealt with the melanoma transcription factor MITF. Sigurdur is investigating the fine structure of nascent phagophores using live cell imaging, correlative light-electron microscopy and electron tomography.

E-mail: Sigurdur.Gudmundsson-at-Helsinki.Fi

Dr Joanna Biazik-Richmond, former postdoctoral researcher

Joanna did her PhD in 2009 at the University of Sydney, Australia, on the histology of uterine epithelium in skinks. She is an expert in electron microscopy and histology. Joanna worked in the Eskelinen group as a postdoctoral researcher in 2011-2015, and again March 2017-February 2018. Joanna used high-pressure freezing, freeze substitution and electron tomography to visualize nascent autophagosomes and their precursors. Joanna has returned to Australia, her country of origin.

Mauricio completed his MSc at the University of Heidelberg in 2017 on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. He joined the Eskelinen group in April 2018 as the first group member working at the University of Turku, Institute of Biomedicine. Mauricio is working on decipring the roles of the small GTPase RAB24 in neuronal cells. He is an early stage researcher in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie network DRIVE.

E-mail: Mauricio.Ramm-at-utu.fi

We have had several MSc students and visiting students from Finland and abroad over the years. At the moment, Farhad Ahmed is doing his MSc thesis in our group at University of Turku.  Milla Laaksonen was working with us in Turku as a lab rotation summer student in May-August 2019. Muhammed Kocak from the Institute of Cancer Research, London, and Florentina Negoita from Lund University will be visiting our lab in Turku in September-October 2019.

Eskelinen group in the bird tower in Viikki nature reserve area

From left to right:

Taina Suntio, postdoctoral researcher in Eskelinen group 2011-2015. Currently a postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki

Päivi Ylä-Anttila, completed her PhD in Eskelinen group in 2015. Currently a postdoctoral researcher at Karolinska Institutet, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Solna, Sweden

Tahira Anwar, Joanna Biazik, Eeva-Liisa Eskelinen

Eskelinen group after PhD dissertation of Päivi Ylä-Anttila, December 2015

From left to right:

Riina Honkanen, MSc student in Eskelinen group in 2015.

Taina Suntio, Päivi Ylä-Anttila, Tahira Anwar, Sigurdur Gudmundsson

Sanni Alve, did her MSc research project in Eskelinen group in 2015

Alumni

Päivi Ylä-Anttila, MSc student,  PhD student, postdoctoral researcher, 2006-2015

Kaisa Happonen, MSc student 2006

Henna Pehkonen, MSc student 2007-2008

Ruusu Merivirta, MSc student 2007-2008

Mykola Domanskyy, postdoctoral researcher 2007-2010

Susanna Salmi, MSc student 2009

Nicolas Yeung, MSc student 2010-2013

Sara Vilske, MSc student 2010

Elisa Mikkonen, MSc student 2011-2012

Taina Suntio, postdoctoral researcher 2011-2015

Annika Marjamäki, MSc student 2013-2014

Samu Viljanen, MSc student 2014

Riina Honkanen, MSc student 2015

Inam Liaqat, intern, 2017-2018