Finnish cancer researcher
Mari Johanna Ivaska (born 1972) is a cancer researcher and molecular cell biology academy professor in University of Turku, Finland.
Early life and education.
Johanna Ivaska was born 1972 in Turku, Finland. Her father is emeritus analytical chemistry professor Ari Ivaska. She did her master's studies in University of Turku. Her PhD on collagen-binding integrins in University of Turku was give an honorary mention for an excellent PhD thesis by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku in 2001. After receiving a PhD she moved to London, UK for a postdoctoral work on investigating how integrins and protein kinases work together in cancer migration at Cancer Research UK with professor Peter J. Parker.
Academic career and research.
Ivaska established her lab in 2003 at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. Currently Ivaska Lab is situated in Turku Centre for Biotechnology. Ivaska's research concentrates on cell surface receptors called integrins and how these affect to cancer cell migration, invasion, tumour-stroma crosstalk and other processes that promote cancer progression. Research aims to find novel regulators for integrin activity, understanding the integrin traffic, and link between integrin activity regulation and mechanosensing. The group also does research on cellular machinery that facilitates cancer cell migration. In this, filopodia are important. Ivaska's group has discovered unconventional myosin that regulates filopodia formation, possibly providing a potential cancer therapeutic.
Personal life.
She is married to immunology professor Marko Salmi and they have twin girls (born 2005). Her hobbies include marathon running that she also does for charity, boating and outdoor life in the Archipelago Sea.
References.
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