Sirpa Jalkanen

Academician Sirpa Jalkanen, MD, PhD is Professor of Immunology at the Medical Faculty, University of Turku. After her postdoctoral period at Stanford University she has worked in different researcher positions at the University of Turku, Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare as well as the Academy of Finland. Recently, she has also worked first as a vice chair and then as a chair of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. She is the director of the MediCity (the Research Unit of the Medical Faculty, University of Turku).

The main interest of Sirpa Jalkanen’s research group has been in the mechanisms mediating the leukocyte trafficking in harmful inflammations and cancer. In addition, her group has identified molecules that mediate lymphocyte and cancer cell migration into lymphatics. She has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and has more than 10 patents. She is an EMBO member and a member of Academia Europae and has received several awards and honours such as Eli Lilly award, Maud Kuistila Prize, Anders Jahre Prize, Äyräpää Prize, Klossner Medal, Datta Medal (from FEBS), the 2nd European Women Innovator Prize and the Finnish Pharma Industry Prizes.

She has also several positions of trust. She is a chair or vice chair of the board in three big Finnish Foundations financing research. She also served as a member of the board of Orion, the biggest pharmaceutical company in Finland for 10 years and has been a co-founder of two biotech companies.