Congratulations ofr Janne & Arun!

This week, we received great news when Janne and Arun were awarded UEF postdoctoral positions for the next 2 years. The competition was tough; there were 36 applications, 11 were interviewed, and only 6 applicants got the position in our Faculty of Health Sciences. So congratulations on both! As I'm being lazy now, I will post the text from LinkeIn:

Janne Tampio studies prodrugs that utilize transporters to enhance drug targeting, working with Assoc. Prof. Kristiina Huttunen. In his postdoctoral research, he focuses on organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATPs) for cell-type-specific brain drug delivery. His main scientific interests include in vitro models and mass spectrometry. Over the coming years, his main aim is to translate results from mouse models to the human context, in collaboration with Prof. Annakaisa Haapasalo. Furthermore, bioanalytical methods applied with Assoc. Prof. Marko Lehtonen and international partners will reveal transporter expression profiles and highlight the benefits of targeted drug delivery.

Arun Tonduru is developing automated workflows that integrate molecular dynamics (MD) into virtual screening to boost hit rates in drug discovery. This work is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Antti Poso and Orion Pharma. Alongside this, he continues his research on OATP transporters, focusing particularly on OATP1B1 and OATP2B1. For OATP1B1, his goals include investigating drug–drug interactions that arise from transporter inhibition and identifying structural determinants of inhibition by peptides — in collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Kristiina Huttunen and Dr. Carolina Säll (Novo Nordisk). Another major aim is to predict how OATP1B1 mutations affect the transport of substrates and inhibitors, in collaboration with Prof. Tetsuya Terasaki and Keio University, Japan.