Grants awarded
The Blood Service Research Fund grants 2024
Independent docent-level researchers:
Joutsi-Korhonen Lotta: Optimizing the supply and demand for extensively typed red blood cell units. 95 000 €
Närvä Elisa: Constant supply of hematopoietic cell types from human pluripotent source. 30 000 €
Perdomo Maria: Clinical impact of the virome in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. 40 000 €
Pessi Anne Birgitta: To donate or not to donate? –Exploration of donor motivation & multi-dimensional wellbeing. 80 000 €
Pitkänen Esa, Vilja Pietiäinen, Lassi Paavolainen: Determinants of morphological and drug response profiles in immune cells of healthy blood donors. 80 000 €
Saksela Kalle: Combinatorial targeting of CAR-T cell therapy for solid cancers. 40 000 €
Tikkanen Jussi: The role of donor/recipient HLA-antigen mismatch in lung transplant outcomes. 25 000 €
Vainio Seppo: Establishing novel xenotransplantation model for rapid and cost-effective evaluation of the immune cell cancer therapeutic efficasy.
40 000 €
Post‐doc researchers:
Martiskainen Iida: Point-of-care test for the multiplexed and ratiometric detection of iron deficiency associated biomarkers in blood donors. 40 000 €
Doctoral researchers:
Edwards Abigail: Psychological ownership in blood donation. 10 000 €
Marttila Heli: Separation of vesicles from viruses by a new chromatography method. 10 000 €
Parhamaa Anna: Management and outcome of alloimmunization during pregnancy in Finland. 10 000 €
The Blood Service Research Fund grants 2023
Independent docent-level researchers:
Fric Jan: A. Cell to cell interactions in immunomodulatory leukemic niche; B. Enhanced CAR NK cells for lymphoma and neuroblastoma. 30 000 €
Koskinen Miika: Modeling and predicting blood product demand in HUS Helsinki University Hospital (HUS-RBC). 90 000 €
Ojala Päivi ja Leppä Sirpa: Multi-target Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T cells for improved efficacy and safety. 40 000 €
Rodosthenous Rodos: Understanding the functional consequences of Finnish-enriched genetic variant RNF43 rs199598395 in anemia and other iron deficiencies. 70 000 €
Sarparanta Mirkka: Leveraging bioorthogonal chemistry for the imaging of CAR T cells with positron emission tomography (PET). 40 000 €
Wang Shiqi: Nanogel backpacks to enhance cytotoxic T lymphocyte-mediate killing of tumor cells. 79 750 €
Post‐doc researchers:
Peltonen Karita: Tumor-specific T-cell repertoire among TILs and their phenotypic and functional features. 49 000 €
Susila Sanna: In vitro hemostatic properties of whole blood. 20 000 €
Vuola Jyrki: Cell therapy on burn patients. 40 000 €
Doctoral researchers:
Karregat Jan: Evaluation of iron supplementation as a blood service policy: a quantitative and qualitative approach. 20 000 €
Marttila Heli: Chromatographic purification of platelet-derived extracellular vesicles – from side streams towards high quality products. 20 000 €
The Blood Service Research Fund grants 2022
Independent docent-level researchers:
Yliperttula Marjo: Nanofibrilloitu selluloosa verituotteiden kantajana syvän haavan hoidossa. 80 000 €
Li Wei: Adoptive transfer of macrophages with high drug-carrying capacity for autoimmune disease therapy. 80 000 €
Klefström Juha: Developing immunogenic cell death assay platform for next generation combinatorial immunotherapies. 80 000 €
Hemminki Akseli: Boosting NK cell therapy anti-tumour efficacy for treatment of immunosuppressive solid tumours with an engineered oncolytic adenovirus coding for a human vIL-2 cytokine. 80 000 €
Kekäläinen Eliisa: Unraveling the root cause for failed B cell immune reconstitution after stem cell transplantation. 80 000 €
Ojala Päivi ja Leppä Sirpa: Dual tumor and microenvironment targeting by Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cells. 30 000 €
Post‐doc researchers:
Hanzlíková Martina: Cell-based measuring platforms for real-time monitoring of blood-derived extracellular vesicles cell uptake kinetics. 30 000 €
Doctoral researchers:
Lee Moon Hee: Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in Renal Cell Carcinoma patients. 10 000 €
Puutio Johanna: Fractionation and characterization of small extracellular vesicle subpopulations from human platelets. 20 000 €
Maldonado Rocio: CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering to generate a metabolic safety mechanism for cell-based therapies. 10 000 €
The Blood Service Research Fund grants 2021
Independent docent-level researchers:
Greco Dario: Development of an integrated platform to generate personalized immunotherapies. 100 000 €
Helanterä Ilkka: Improving kidney transplant outcomes – a multidisciplinary approach with epidemiological, molecular, economical, and tissue histocompatibility aspects. 75 000 €
Ojala Päivi ja Leppä Sirpa: Towards efficient and safe Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T‐cell therapy for haematological and solid cancers. 80 000 €
Cerullo Vincenzo: The efficacy of immunotherapy testing in HLA‐matched immune‐ organoids. 75 000 €
Siljander Pia: Tunability and therapeutic potential of platelet‐derived extracellular vesicles. 55 000 €
Post‐doc researchers:
Parkkila Petteri: Apolipoproteiini E:n geenimuotojen vaikutukset veriperäisten vesikkelien toimintaan. 35 000 € (yksivuotinen)
Zehua Liu: Transplantation of genetically edited peripheral blood monocytes for attenuating myocardial reperfusion injury. 35 000 €
Doctoral researchers:
Harju Venla: Solunulkoiset kalvorakkulat mahdollisena hoitomenetelmänä iskeemiseen aivohalvaukseen. 20 000 €
Koivunotko Elle: Freeze‐dried Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) in Nanofibrillated Cellulose (NFC) Hydrogel for Wound Care. 20 000 €