Spring trip for occupational wellbeing

Today, we had a spring trip to Laivonsaari, an island relatively nearby to the university. So we walked over the ice, which may be a bit exotic to non-Finnish colleagues, to the island and we calculated that the full trip to Laivonsaari and back was about 8 km. So in total we walked about 150 km. In Laivonsaari there is a porch or barbecue shed and of course we grilled sausages, but we also had coffees and everything else nicely organized. So thank you Tiina and Miia for organizing a such a lovely day! 

Ph.D. dissertation

Yesterday, we had a great day for our research group, but also for the School of Pharmacy and the University of Eastern Finland, but most importantly to Ahmed, who had his Ph.D. dissertation. So after the Ph.D. thesis has past pre-examination by 2 external reviewer, the Ph.D. candidate will have a public examination. And yesterday, Ahmed defended his Ph.D. thesis and work proudly in front of the audience to his opponent, Professor Mikko Airavaara, from the University of Helsinki. They had a great over 2 h discussion on science after which the opponent recommended this work to be accepted by the Faculty and Ahmed to be promoted as a Ph.D. Of course, to achieve the graduation, the student has to pass 30 credit points of additional studies also. And at the evening we also have a nice and warm Karonkka to celebrate the opponent and the fresh Ph.D. candidate. So congratulations Ahmed, and Big Thank You!

A humble thank you!

I don't want to brag with this, since I know that there were many good applications that were not funded, but I was the lucky one to receive good news from Sigrid Juselius Foundation last week. Literally, I'm speechless at the moment, and so grateful that I'm able to continue the research that Sigrid Juselius Foundation has been kindly supported for so long time. Most importantly, now we have a future for the new Ph.D. students, Ville and Andy, who have most recently joined to our group. So my greatest and most humble thank you for Sigrid Juselius Foundation, you will definitely hear more about "Innovative and Proactive Solutions for Better Brain Health" in the near future!

Here a more about the good new (link).

New students are still coming in for the spring semester

We have a new ERASMUS student in the synthesis lab, Lukasz from Medical University of Lodz, Poland. And the funny thing is that even though we have a strong collaborator from the same university, with Magdalena, Lukasz's visit is not related to her lab, vice versa, Lukasz was gladly surprised to learn that we have such a tight collaboration with his home university. Lukasz will work in our anti-oxidant project and prepare novel transporter-utilizing prodrugs to improve brain and/or pancreatic delivery of natural anti-oxidants to prevent oxidative stress, related to many brain and metabolic diseases. And in upcoming months we are expecting to receive 3 additional ERASMUS students.

Another Symposium in Kuopio Coming in August!

Weird thing happened. After the pandemic, I was asked twice last year to hold a symposium in Kuopio. One is now behind us, but the other one is coming. Originally, it was planned to be in late autumn, but since our School of Pharmacy is turning 50 years, the will be all kind of events during autumn, and therefore we decided to have this other one just after the summer holidays. So I can now proudly present that 6th Annual Finnish Brain Tumor Research Association (FIBTRA) meeting that will be organised again as a joint Ph.D. course for students in Doctoral Program in Drug Research (DPDR) of the University of Eastern Finland, in Kuopio 31st of August and 1st of September, 2023! 

We have be able to attract very famous and interesting speakers, so please join us! The registration is now open!

More information can be found behind this link (official websites).