Johanna Laakkonen
Academy Research Fellow
University of Eastern Finland
Research line: Gene
Role in project: Vascular biology, Novel Transgenes/Proteins for Therapy
Research and expertise: I’m an Academy Research Fellow, and PI of a junior research group focusing on Vascular Biology and Gene Therapy. The goal of my team is to improve therapeutics of cardiovascular diseases by understanding the biology behind the diseases, and to find novel molecules to inhibit or induce vascular growth. In the Flagship, my team is developing novel gene therapies aiming to induce vascular growth in the ischemic heart or to inhibit cell death of cardiomyocytes typical for heart failure. Research interests: Disease mechanisms, Aortic aneurysms, Vascular Malformations, Gene Therapy, 3D angiogenesis models, Cell Signaling, Imaging.