• Cecilia Sahlgren, Docent

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

    Professor of Cell Biology at ÅAU and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at TU/e.

  • Malin Åkerfelt, Docent

    SENIOR RESEARCHER

  • Aravind Mohan Kumar, PhD

    POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Project: Flagship InFLAMES

  • Ezgi Özliseli, PhD

    POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Project: RCF CoE IMMENs

    Engineering organ-on-chip platforms to study lymphatic endothelium and immune cell interactions.

  • Phani Suidarsanam, PhD

    POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Project: ERC-SyG MakingBlood (TU/e)

  • Sami Sanlidag, PhD

    POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Project: ERC-SyG MakingBlood

  • Aurélien Mazet, PhD

    POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Project: RCF CoE IMMENs

  • Atefeh Atefi, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: ERC-SyG MakingBlood

  • Bente Hollestelle

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: ERC-SyG MakingBlood

    Co-supervised together with Prof. Nicholas Kurniawan (TU/e)

  • Elmeri Kiviluoto, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Cytoskeleton and Notch dynamics upon ligand-receptor interactions on dynamic micropatterns

  • Erica Långbacka, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Notch cross-talk in the tumour microenvironment

  • Eva van den Hurk, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: ERC-AdG RE-ALIGN (TU/e)

    Co-supervised by Prof. Carlijn Bouten (TU/e)

  • Jessica Salo, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Targeted intracellular CRISPR/Cas9 delivery in vivo applications for novel liver cancer therapy through c-Myc knockout

    Co-supervised together with Prof. Hongbo Zhang

  • Kai-Lan Lin, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Tumor LN on Chip

  • Marjaana Parikainen, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Juxtacrine interactions in cancer microenvironment

    Co-supervised by Prof. Jyrki Heino (UTU)

  • Noora Virtanen, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: Mechanical regulation of Notch signaling in development and homeostasis

  • Shayan Zarin-Bal, MSc

    PhD RESEARCHER

    Project: YAP/TAZ and Notch crosstalk in sprouting angiogenesis

    Co-supervised together with Tommaso Ristori (TU/e)

  • Büşra Dayıoğlu, MSc

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Project: Flagship InFLAMES

Alumni:

PhD researchers

  • Janine Grolleman (2025, TU/e), next step: university lecturer at TU/e, the Netherlands

  • William Eccleshall (2025,UTU), next step: business development, Care4Living, Finland

  • Freddy Suarez Rodriguez (2024, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Christopher Chen lab, University of Boston, USA

  • Cansu Karakaya (2024, TU/e), next step: system test engineer, Philips, the Netherlands

  • Ezgi Özliseli (2024, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Pharmaceutical Science Laboratory, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Freddy Suarez Rodriguez (2024, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Leila Coelho Rato (2024, ÅAU), next step: research scientist, Avenue Bioscience, Finland

  • Jordy van Asten (2024, TU/e), next step: science communicator at Utrecht University, the Netherlands

  • Laura Tiemeijer (2022, ÅAU), next step: pharmaceutical specialist at Organon, the Netherlands

  • Valeriy Paramonov (2021, UTU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Karolinska Institute, Sweden

  • Nicole van Engeland (2021, ÅAU), next step: system test engineer at ASML, the Netherlands

  • Daniel Antfolk (2020, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center, USA

  • Christian Antila (2020, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Päivi Koskinen lab, University of Turku, Finland

  • Jelle Sleeboom (2020, TU/e), next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Jaap den Toonder lab, TU/e Mechanical Engineering, the Netherlands

  • Rob Driessen (2020, TU/e), next step: project manager at Mechanobiology Services Eindhoven (MS/e), the Netherlands

  • Arianna Mauretti (2018, TU/e), next step: junior researcher QC at Merck Group, Italy

  • Iris Lähdeniemi (2018, ÅAU, co-supervised with Diana Toivola), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Finland

  • Sebastian Landor (2016, KI, co-supervised with Urban Lendahl), next step: postdoctoral researcher at Åbo Akademi University

  • Marika Sjöqvist (2015, ÅAU), next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Emma Andersson lab, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

  • Anders Mutvei (2014, KI, co-supervised by Urban Lendahl), next step: postdoctoral researcher at the John Blenis lab at Weill Cornell Medicine / Harvard Medical School, USA; PI, Uppsala University, Sweden

Postdocs

  • Elenaé Vázquez Ulloa, next step: project researcher at the Silvia Gramolelli lab (Viral Oncogenesis Research Lab), Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Elena Martinez-Klimova

  • Diosángeles Soto Véliz, next step: research scientist, VTT, Finland

  • Kati Kemppainen, next step: project specialist, Research Services, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Oscar Stassen

  • Hetty Manenschijn

  • Sebastian Landor

  • Johanna Ahlskog, next step: senior scientist, Orion Corporation, Finland

  • Marika Sjöqvist, next step: Senior Scientist, Perkin Elmer, Finland

  • Tommaso Ristori, next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Christopher S. Chen lab, Boston University, USA; assistant professor, TU/e, the Netherlands

  • Jolanta Lundgren, next step: postdoctoral researcher at the Pirta Hotulainen lab, University of Helsinki, Finland

  • Adolfo Rivero-Müller, next step: professor at Medical University of Lublin, Poland

  • Veronika Mamaeva, deceased with dignity 6.1.2018

Others

  • Alexandra Manea (Lab Manager)

National and international collaborators:

  • Associate professor Emma R. Andersson, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

  • Assistant professor Sepinoud Azimi, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Associate professor Kayla Bayless, Texas A&M University, USA

  • Dr. Katie Bentley, Francis Crick Institute, UK

  • Professor Anna Bigas Salvans; Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute; Spain

  • Professor Carlijn Bouten, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Christopher Chen, Boston University, USA

  • Assistant professor Vito Conte, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands and IBEC, Spain

  • Professor Patricia Dankers, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Gerald de Haan, Sanquin, the Netherlands

  • Professor Jaap den Toonder, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Fredrik Höök, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

  • Professor Sébastien Lafond, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Professor Rhett Kovall, University of Cincinnati, USA

  • Professor Urban Lendahl, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

  • Associate professor Sandra Loerakker, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Taija Mäkinen, University of Helsinki, Finland

  • Associate professor Philip J. Nickel, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Milos Pekny, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

  • Dr. Cristina Pina, Sanquin, the Netherlands

  • Professor Jessica Rosenholm, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Associate professor Diana Toivola, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Professor Per Uhlén, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

  • Adjunct professor Kari Vaahtomeri, University of Helsinki, Finland

  • Associate professor Hadi Valadi, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

  • Professor Tapani Viitala; University of Helsinki, Åbo Akademi University; Finland

  • Assistant professor Ye Wang, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Professor Hongbo Zhang, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

  • Professor Ronald Österbacka, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

and many valuable collaborators at Åbo Akademi University within Cell Biology, Pharmacy, Physics Chemistry and Molecular Modeling.