Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM)

08/12/2025

The Research Council of Finland 's subcommittee for Thematic Research has made the funding decisions on thematically targeted funding calls.

Warm congratulations to FIMM Group Leaders Nina Mars and Hanna M. Ollila, who both received funding through the call aimed at strengthening clinical research and generating new research knowledge to support social welfare and healthcare, disease treatment, diagnostics, prevention or business activity.

Nina's project "Individualized Screening for Glaucoma Using Genetics to Preserve Vision (iSCREEN-G)" is a collaboration with Joni Turunen/Helsinki University Central Hospital.

Hanna works with Markus Ramste & Enni Sanmark and their project is titled "Early Detection and Diagnosis of Sleep Disorders and Comorbidities through Integrated Risk Prediction".

The Research Council of Finland’s (RCF) Subcommittee for Thematic Research has made the funding decisions on four thematically targeted funding calls. The total funding comes to nearly 37 million euros. The targeted calls were based on the 2025 state budget, which had also allocated funding fo...

06/12/2025

Today, Finland is celebrating its 108th Independence Day. On this occasion, the President of the Republic, Alexander Stubb, in his role as the Grand Master of Finland’s three orders, has awarded Professor, Research Director Olli Kallioniemi the decoration of Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. Our warmest congratulations!

03/12/2025

Upcoming FIMM dissertation! 📢

Jakob German will defend his doctoral dissertation "Genetically-Informed Real-World Evidence and Trial Design" in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, on 12 December 2025 at 13:00.

Assistant Professor Linda Kachuri, Stanford University, will serve as the opponent, and Associate Professor Andrea Ganna as the custos. The thesis has been supervised by Andrea Ganna and Anthony Philippakis, PhD (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard).

The thesis illustrates the potential and limitations of integrating genetic information into real-world evidence frameworks. It demonstrates that genetics can strengthen the credibility of real-world analyses by exposing residual confounding and by clarifying when treatment effects are consistent across populations.

The public examination will take place at the following address: Oral and Dental Centre, hall H3.034 (Topeliuksenkatu 30). Welcome!

Event page: https://tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/6913c39afafad1b3a6d5d2a1/jakob-german-genetically-informed-real-world-evidence-and-trial-design

E-thesis: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/603632

02/12/2025

New study from Helena Kilpinen's group shows that image-based phenotypic features from stem cell-derived neurons can reveal disease-relevant biology and genetic risk for brain disorders.

The research team used Cell Painting approach to uncover disease-relevant features in human brain cells grown in the laboratory. They profiled over 60,000 stem cell-derived cortical neurons across three developmental timepoints.

By modeling the relationship between image-based features and gene expression, Adithi Sundaresh, Dimitri Meistermann and others created a proof-of-concept framework that links what cells look like with biological processes underlying diseases.

The study also showed that genes associated with cell morphological features could capture heritability for brain-related traits. This opens up new possibilities for using image-based cellular features to interpret genetic risk in complex diseases.

New study from the University of Helsinki shows that image-based phenotypic features from stem cell-derived neurons can reveal disease-relevant biology and genetic risk for brain disorders.

28/11/2025

Vuoden 2025 Maud Kuistilan palkinto on myönnetty FIMMin tutkimusjohtaja Aarno Palotielle. Lämpimät onnittelut!

Maud Kuistilan palkinto jaetaan vuosittain ansioituneelle lääketieteen tutkijoiden kouluttajalle tutkijayhteisön tekemien ehdotusten perusteella.

Palotie on ohjannut ansiokkaasti lukuisia aloittelevia tutkijoita ja tukenut heidän urakehitystään. Palotietä kiitetään myös siitä, että hänen tukensa ohjattaville jatkuu myös väitöstutkimuksen valmistumisen jälkeen. Erityisesti aloittelevat tutkimusryhmän johtajat arvostavat kokeneen mentorinsa tukea, joka helpottaa uusiin tutkimushaasteisiin tarttumista.

Geenitutkimuksen uranuurtajana tunnetun Palotien käynnistämä FinnGen-hanke on tarjonnut useille nuorille tutkijoille mahdollisuuden tehdä korkeatasoista tutkimusta kansainvälisessä tiedeyhteisössä. Palotien johtamien hankkeiden sanotaan luoneen Suomeen jopa uudenlaisen tutkijahautomon. Tällä hetkellä FinnGenin lääketieteellistä geenitietopankkia hyödyntää Suomessa jo yli 500 tutkijaa.

Lue lisää palkinnosta: https://mkmsaatio.fi/1348-2/

Maud Kuistilan muistosäätiön artikkeli ja Aarno Palotien haastattelu:
https://mkmsaatio.fi/artikkelit/

28/11/2025

The Young Investigator of the Month honor at FIMM highlights a FIMM doctoral or postdoctoral researcher each month for a recent significant accomplishment.

The Young Investigator for October 2025 is Toni Saari. Warm congratulations to him for his recent first-author publication, “Validity of telephone-administered word list learning measures for assessment of episodic memory in aging and Alzheimer's disease”, in Neuropsychiology! 🎉

Toni is a postdoctoral researcher at FIMM in Eero Vuoksimaa’s research group. His research focuses on early behavioral, cognitive and biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease using Finnish twin data and Alzheimer’s disease datasets.

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/hilife-helsinki-institute-life-science/units/fimm/training-fimm/young-investigators-month

27/11/2025

FIMM is investing in innovation!

Our internal pilot call for innovation-driven projects drew 18 high-quality applications. The proposals were so strong that we expanded the number of funded projects from five to ten.

These pilots directly support FIMM’s goal to accelerate technological and methodological innovation, helping our community develop impactful new research tools and approaches.

Cheers to the team leaders of the funded pilot projects:
Kati Donner, Caroline Heckman, Romika Kumari, Sergey Kuznetsov, Johan Lundin, Astrid Murumägi, Lassi Paavolainen, Esa Pitkänen, Ziaurrehman Tanoli and Markus Vähä-Koskela.

The projects will run from 1 Dec 2025 to 31 May 2026, with results presented during the Innovation Session at our next FIMM Retreat in June 2026.

25/11/2025

Warm congratulations to all FIMM-affiliated researchers receiving Cancer Foundation Finland's 2025 grants!

Heidi Haikala and her group: Spatial determinants of immunotherapy resistance in lung cancer

Esa Pitkänen and his group: Next-Gen Software for Multimodal Precision Oncology in Clinical Practice and Research

Mika Kontro and his group: Venetoclax resistance in AML – from mechanisms to treatment strategies

Caroline Heckman and her group: Morphological mapping of acute myeloid leukemia for improved diagnostics and treatment

And special applause for our dissertation grant recipients: Nemo Ikonen and ANKITA SRIVASTAVA

On behalf of the FIMM grant recipients, we thank the Cancer Foundation Finland for this vital support!

Read more: https://syopasaatio.fi/tutkimus/tutkijalle/syopasaation-myontamat-apurahat-2025/

24/11/2025

Come to Finland, join the ELLIS Institute and the University of Helsinki as an Associate/Assistant/Full Professor in Computational Precision Health!

We are a partner of ELLIS Institute, which is now hiring principal investigators in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The Faculty of Medicine and FIMM/Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE) are looking for qualified candidates to carry out research in precision health motivated machine learning, with a focus on:
🟢 Foundation models for longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data, and/or
🟢 Novel methods for multimodal prediction of disease onset, treatment response and prognosis

ELLIS Institute PI recruitment is open until January 12, 2026.
Details and applications at:
https://www.ellisinstitute.fi/PI-recruit-2026

Professorship position description:
https://www.ellisinstitute.fi/pi-positions-2026 #11-university-of-helsinki--university-of-helsinki--assistant-associate-full-professor-in-computational-precision-health

Call for new P*s in artificial intelligence and machine learning

17/11/2025

This article from Technology Networks provides a clear overview of how high-throughput screening (HTS) is evolving through advances in automation, AI-driven analysis and increasingly complex cell models.

The piece highlights how modern HTS generates richer and more informative data than traditional approaches, supporting more efficient and precise drug discovery workflows.

One of the key voices in the article is Laura Turunen, Laboratory Coordinator at the FIMM High Throughput Biomedicine Unit (HTB). She highlights how innovations like acoustic dispensing and nanoliter-precision liquid handling are making workflows faster and more reliable - a big leap forward from the manual pipetting of the past.

This article explores how advances in automation, 3D cell models and AI are transforming high-throughput screening, driving faster and more predictive drug discovery.

14/11/2025

Upcoming FIMM dissertation! 📢

Linda Ottensmann will defend her doctoral dissertation "The genetic architecture of the human plasma lipidome and its connection to disease risk" in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, on 20 November 2025 at 13:00.

Professor Minna Kaikkonen-Määttä, University of Eastern Finland, will serve as the opponent, and professor Matti Pirinen as the custos. The thesis has been supervised by professors Samuli Ripatti and Matti Pirinen.

The public examination will take place at the following address: Haartman Institute, Lecture Hall 2, Haartmaninkatu 3. Welcome!

In this thesis, Linda has utilized genome-wide and mass spectrometry-based lipidome data from more than 7000 Finnish individuals in the GeneRISK study to characterize the genetic architecture of the human plasma lipidome and investigate its connection to disease risk.

Link to the event page: https://tapahtumat.helsinki.fi/en-FI/page/69014e9bfafad1b3a6d289aa

Read the thesis here: https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/6de84cd3-7bcb-4077-a470-4a8df78d6dd7

12/11/2025

Big congratulations to Tero Aittokallio for being recognized as one of the world's Most Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate for the third time in a row! 🎉

According to Clarivate, the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list celebrates 6,868 researchers from over 1,300 institutions across 60 countries who have demonstrated exceptional influence through their published work, driving innovation and societal impact.

Each researcher selected has authored multiple Highly Cited Papers which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year over the past eleven years.

Read more: https://clarivate.com/highly-cited-researchers/