Riitta Lahesmaa

Riitta Lahesmaa, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Systems immunology and the Director of Turku Bioscience Centre, Turku, Finland (https://bioscience.fi/). She was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University Medical Center and a Principal Scientist at Roche Bioscience in Palo Alto, California. She was an Academy Professor of Research Council of Finland and vice director of the Research Council of Finland Centre of Excellence in Systems Immunology and Physiology. She is a member of the board of Scandinavian Society of Immunology and an elected member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters since 2012.

Research

Lahesmaa's research aims at understanding molecular mechanisms of regulation of human immune response and pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and other human immune mediated diseases. T cells orchestrate our immune system and a proper balance of T cells is crucial for immune defense in healthy individuals. In autoimmune diseases, out-of-control T cells drive pathologic inflammatory responses with devastating consequences for patients. Her studies have resulted in the identification of novel molecular mechanisms and new regulators of T cell functions. The projects in progress aim at (1) understanding the molecular basis of immune regulation to enable its modulation, and (2) understanding the early immune response in children who develop type 1 diabetes to identify new biomarkers to improve predicting, monitoring, and early diagnosis of beginning of the disease process. This is of fundamental importance to be able to select the right patients for potential interventions as soon as the disease process kicks in.