Tapahtumakalenteri

huhtikuu 04

Dissertation: Marika Eriksson

Marika Eriksson, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, Doctoral Program in Clinical Research
Cerebral small vessel disease and stroke in type 1 diabetes : The impact of blood pressure, haptoglobin genotype, and diabetic retinopathy

Opponent: Professor (MD, DMSc) Kåre Birkeland, University of Oslo



Aloitusaika: 04.04.2025 13:00
Lopetusaika: 04.04.2025 15:00
Kesto: 2 hours
Sijainti: Haartman Institute, lecture hall 2, Haartmaninkatu 3, 00290 Helsinki
Tyyppi: Dissertation
Organisaatio: UH, Faculty of Medicine
Yhteyshenkilö: marika.eriksson@helsinki.fi
huhtikuu 08

Kliinisen kemian seminaarit

Laboratorion pienlaitteiden laadunvarmistus
Pipsa Kulovesi
Aloitusaika: 08.04.2025 14:15
Lopetusaika: 08.04.2025 15:00
Kesto: 45 minutes
Sijainti: remotely
Tyyppi: Seminar
Organisaatio: HUS
Yhteyshenkilö: tuukka.helin@hus.fi
huhtikuu 11

Special Seminar by Prof. Tero Järvinen

Systemically administered, yet target organ-specific therapies for tissue regeneration


Tero Järvinen, M.D., Ph.D is a Professor and Chief Surgeon at the Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, Finland. He graduated from the Medical School, University of Tampere in 1997 and completed his PhD in 1999 from University of Tampere, Finland. He completed his training in clinical medicine (orthopedic surgery and traumatology) in 2008. Tero Järvinen joined the lab of Professor Erkki Ruoslahti at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) at La Jolla, CA, USA from 2003 - 2006 as a postdoctoral fellow. After returning back to Finland, Prof. Tero Järvinen founded the laboratory of Regenerative Medicine at the Tampere University. The main focus of the research is to develop systematically administered, target-seeking therapeutic molecules for the regenerative medicine. These novel targeted molecules would have increased therapeutic value in the diseased organ compared to the conventional therapeutics while simultaneously reducing the harmful side-effects in the normal tissues.

 

The approach is based on the fact that the blood vessels in each tissue have a unique molecular fingerprint that is specific for that given tissue, i.e. vascular “Zip code”. Furthermore, human diseases also cause molecular changes (induced expression of specific cell surface markers) in the blood vessels supplying the involved organ. For example, angiogenic blood vessels in tumors and in regenerating tissues express distinctive markers that are not present in vessels of normal tissues. These specific cell surface markers, in turn, can be specifically targeted by vascular homing peptides that home to their target organ when administered systemically. Dr. Järvinen's research group has identified vascular homing peptides that specifically target the angiogenic blood vessels and the vasculature inflammatory diseases. Utilizing these target-tissue specific homing peptides, they have devised two novel delivery mechanisms:

 

A) building multi-functional fusion-proteins (CAR-decorin) consisting of separate domains for targeting and tissue penetration and therapeutic effects. CAR-decorin is a systemically administered, target-seeking biotherapeutic that inhibits scar formation. The injury can happen in any organ of the body (or multiple organs simultaneously) and systemically administered vascular homing peptide CAR can be found there through blood stream by targeting angiogenic vasculature forming at the site of the injury. CAR-decorin binds to its receptor specific for the vasculature of the injured tissues and extravasates into surrounding tissue, where it binds to its receptor on the cell surface of the scar producing fibroblasts. The CAR binding to the HSPGs provides ideal docking for the therapeutic part of the molecule, decorin, for binding and neutralization of its molecular targets; TGF-b1 and -b2, the growth factors responsible for scar formation. The clinical outcome is reduced scarring.

 

B) recently published revolutionary tissue-penetrating transport pathway called “bystander effect”, to target the drugs without conjugating them to the delivery vehicle. The “bystander effect” provides the advantage of promoting delivery of a drug to its target tissue without the need of coupling of the drug to the peptide required in conventional drug targeting.

 

Web page: https://research.tuni.fi/regenerative-medicine-lab/

 

Selected publications:

Screening of homing and tissue-penetrating peptides by microdialysis and in vivo phage display. Pemmari, T. et al., Life Sci Alliance. 2025.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39933917/

 

Histological Definition of Skeletal Muscle Injury: A Guide to Nomenclature Along the Connective Tissue Sheath/Structure. Pedret, C. et al., Sports Med. 2024.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39692975/

 

Myofibroblasts reside in the middle dermis of the keloids but do not predict the response to injection therapies: a double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial.

Komulainen, T. et al., Front Med (Lausanne). 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38495113/

 

Systemically administered wound-homing peptide accelerates wound healing by modulating syndecan-4 function. 

Maldonado, H. et al., Nat Commun. 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38057316/


Aloitusaika: 11.04.2025 10:00
Lopetusaika: 11.04.2025 11:00
Kesto: 1 hour
Sijainti: Biomedicum Helsinki 1, meeting room Skutsi
Tyyppi: Seminar
Organisaatio: UH, Faculty of Medicine
Yhteyshenkilö: saija.piironen@helsinki,.fi
huhtikuu 15

Kliinisen kemian seminaari: dosenttiluento

Tuukka Helin: Hyytymisen analytiikan perusteet

 

Kohderyhmä on lääketieteen perustutkinto-opiskelijat

Dosentuurin ala on kliininen kemia


Aloitusaika: 15.04.2025 14:15
Lopetusaika: 15.04.2025 15:00
Kesto: 45 minutes
Sijainti: remotely
Tyyppi: Docententship lecture
Organisaatio: HUS
Yhteyshenkilö: tuukka.helin@hus.fi
huhtikuu 16

FICAN Science webinar by prof Aki Manninen

Losing adhesions to promote prostate cancer
Speaker: 

Aki Manninen, Professor of Cell Biology, Leader of the Disease Networks Research Unit, Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, University of Oulu

This webinar is organized by FICAN North (Pohjoinen syöpäkeskus). The webinar will be held online in Teams (link below) and is open to everyone interested in cancer research.

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a highly heterogeneous disease with a significant hereditary risk component, affecting millions of men and their families worldwide. While PCa is typically slow growing, some cases are aggressive, making early identification crucial. With no cure available for metastatic PCa, early detection of the aggressive forms is critical. To aid early detection, a deeper understanding of the genetic risk factors and the early steps of tumorigenesis are needed.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) undergoes significant remodeling during prostate cancer (PCa) progression. Cell-ECM interactions, primarily mediated by integrins, play a critical role in regulating cell growth and polarity. We have investigated the functional roles of specific integrins in PCa revealing that the disruption of coordinated focal and hemidesmosomal adhesions contributes to tumorigenic properties of PCa cells. To allow detailed investigation of the dynamics of these events during early PCa tumorigenesis, we have been developing primary prostate organoid models that better mimic the human PCa in vitro.

In my presentation, I will discuss our key findings on integrin-mediated adhesions and how their functions are linked to PCa tumorigenesis. These analyses range from altered signaling cascades to mechanical molecular connections from adhesions into the nucleus to regulate transcriptomic programs. I will also present some data from PCa organoid model.

Relevat references for this talk:

Cruz SP, Q. Zhang Q, Devarajan R, Paia C, Luo B, Zhang K, Koivusalo S, Qin L, Xia J, Ahtikoski A, Vaarala M, Wenta T, Wei GH, Manninen A (2024) Dampened Regulatory Circuitry of TEAD1/ITGA1/ITGA2 Promotes TGFβ1 Signaling to Orchestrate Prostate Cancer Progression. Adv. Sci., 2305547.
Wenta T, Schmidt A, Zhang Q, Devarajan R, Singh P, Yang X, Ahtikoski A, Vaarala M, Wei GH, Manninen A (2022) Disassembly of α6β4-mediated hemidesmosomal adhesions promotes tumorigenesis in PTEN-negative prostate cancer by targeting plectin to focal adhesions. Oncogene. 41:3804-3820.
Devarajan R, Hawash A, Koivusalo S, Tervasmäki A, Mattila T, Zhang Q, Näpänkangas J, Ahtikoski A, Vaarala M, Pylkäs K, Izzi V, Wei GH, Manninen A (2023) Patient-derived prostate cancer organoids require α6-integrins for self-renewal and recapitulate genetic heterogeneity and histopathology of the original tumors. Preprint Research Square: doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3209780/v1