2 Review articles finally out!

I was recently invited to write a review article to a precious journal called "Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery" with a given title "Improving drug delivery to the brain: the prodrug approach (link)". So I wrote something, although the topic is tricky, since there is so much yet to do to achieve this aim! 

We also wrote another review article based on Heinileena's Master Thesis, but also Tonnaow and Santosh participated to finalize it and it was also recently published in "Neurochemistry International" under the title "Amino acid transporters in neurological disorders and neuroprotective effects of cysteine derivatives (link)". A great overview for the current understanding of amino acid transporter's role in different brain diseases, and since many of them are seemed to be linked to the endogenous antioxidant glutathione (GSH) and its precursor amino acids, such as cysteine deficiency, the prevailing attempts to improve cysteine levels in the brain were also summarized.

An of course we recently celebrate this among the grants that Adela and Janne received this spring! 

So congratulations and thank you for you hard work!

We participated in FOSH 2024

Last week, UEF doctoral programs in Health Sciences organized for the first time "Faculty of Health Sciences Doctoral Researcher Symposium 2024" (link) in Kuopio campus (15-16.5.2024). From our research group, we participated with 5 Ph.D. students, mainly by poster presentations. But our co-group member Juulia had also an oral presentation. Good practice before her Ph.D. defense, which is coming soon... 😀 I was also supposed to participate, but then something more important came up... But I guess this symposium was well received and hopefully connections between the doctoral programs continues at the campus site in the future.

Greetings from Budapest

I had the privilege to participate to the "Meet the Experts (MEEX) - Transporters & ADME" symposium as invited speaker in Budapest, Hungary last week, organized by Solvo Biotechnology (part of Charles River Company). I haven't had change to participate this great symposium before, and I can highly recommend it to anyone interested in transporters. The size of the symposium was optimal for interactions, about 130 participants and I had a real nice place for my presentation, the second after the Keynote speaker! 😅 So lots of questions and follow-up discussion, and most importantly, many new network connections. I'm really thankful for Prof. Tetsuya Terasaki, who, I believe, convinced the organizers to invite me as a speaker! 💖 The venue was also nice, Hotel Continental Budapest, but it was the first time I was not able to see my presentation from the screen, as it was above me! 😁 The conference dinner was organized of course as a boat cruise on Danube River!

Congrats Janne and Thank You Emil Aatonen Foundation

We have received another good news for this year, since Janne received 1-year grant (a second year!) from Emil Aaltonen Foundation! So congratulations, Janne! 🌹 I hope with this grant you will graduate and receive your well-deserved Ph.D. degree! There were only 87 full year grants for the science awarded and here is the full list of grantees. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos, when we celebrated this, but perhaps, there will be some photos later!