The InFLAMES Steering Group has selected four new PIs as members of the InFLAMES team at Åbo Akademi University: Eleanor Coffey, Annika Meinander, Diana Toivola and Hongbo Zhang.

The appointed group leaders strengthen the Flagship with their expertise in inflammatory signalling and disease models, immune therapy and nanomedicine as well as state-of-the-art imaging modalities.

Eleanor Coffey

Dr. Coffey is a research director at Åbo Akademi University and vice director of Turku Bioscience in addition to leading her lab which focuses on kinase function in the brain. In relation to the InFLAMES Flagship, ongoing studies in the Coffey lab examine the relevance of inflammatory signals in patient blood to pathological events taking place in the brain. This work is carried out in the context of Parkinson’s disease and mental illness associated with COVID-19 infection.

Annika Meinander

Dr. Meinander is a university lecturer and the head of subject of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Åbo Akademi University as well as PI of the Inflammatory Signalling Lab. Her research group determines changes in and consequences of ubiquitin-modifications during inflammation and cell stress and develops sensitive tools for detection of specific ubiquitin modifications. They use mammalian and non-mammalian model systems to identify how ubiquitin modifications are regulated and recognized, and how this signal is converted into inflammation-inducing activation of gene expression.

Diana Toivola

Dr. Toivola is an associate professor at Åbo Akademi University Cell Biology, the head of ÅAU’s master’s program in Biomedical Imaging (BIMA), and group leader of the Epithelial Biology Lab. Her research group identifies molecular mechanisms that contribute to epithelial health and that are disrupted in inflammatory bowel diseases and type-1-diabetes. Using disease models and patient samples they also develop novel diagnostics tools that are imaging-based, non-invasive or disease-specific.

Hongbo Zhang

Dr. Zhang is an associate professor at Åbo Akademi University Pharmacy, an Academy Research Fellow and PI of the multidisciplinary Functional Materials for Medicine laboratory. His group of over 20 researchers combines physics, material science, synthetic organic chemistry and engineering with biology and medicine. They develop smart and functional materials as solutions for health. These include nanovaccines, nanoantibiotics and nanomedicine for immune therapy, regulation of the immune response after organ transplantation, and treatment of metabolic diseases.