Jukka Westermarck profile picture
Jukka
Westermarck
Professor, Institute of Biomedicine
Research Director, Turku Bioscience Centre
MD, PhD
Role and regulation of phosphatases, particularly tumor suppressor protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in human cancers

Contact

+358 29 450 2880
+358 40 742 3007
Tykistökatu 6
20520
Turku

Biography

Jukka Westermarck is a Professor of Cancer Biology, and Research Director, in the Turku Bioscience Centre at University of Turku. 

Westermarck earned his medical degree from University of Turku in 1996. Two years later he obtained his PhD degree in Department of Medical Biochemistry and Department of Dermatology at the same University. He was working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dirk Bohmann during 1999-2001 in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. After being appointed as Academy Fellow by the Academy of Finland, he established his own research group at Turku Centre for Biotechnology in 2002. In 2006-2009 he was appointed as a group leader in the Institute of Medical Technology at University of Tampere, and after that he returned back to Turku due to his appointment as a tenure Research Director of Turku Centre for Biotechnology, and as a Professor of Cancer Biology at the Faculty of Medicine. In 2012, he worked as a visiting Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

Professor Westermarck received young researcher prize from Finnish Medical Association Duodecim 2007, and Anders Jahre young investigator prize 2009 from University of Oslo, Norway. In 2017, he became an elected member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

Research

Prof. Westermarck´s research focuses on role and regulation of phosphatases, particularly tumor suppressor protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in human cancers. Based on this work his group has identified several novel signaling principles how PP2A regulates cancer progression, as well as potential novel cancer therapy targets and diagnostic biomarkers.

Publications

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PP2A inhibition is a druggable MEK inhibitor resistance mechanism in KRAS-mutant lung cancer cells (2018)

Science Translational Medicine
Otto Kauko, Caitlin M. O’Connor, Evgeny Kulesskiy, Jaya Sangodkar, Anna Aakula, Sudeh Izadmehr, Laxman Yetukuri, Bhagwan Yadav, Artur Padzik, Teemu Daniel Laajala, Pekka Haapaniemi, Majid Momeny, Taru Varila, Michael Ohlmeyer, Tero Aittokallio, Krister Wennerberg, Goutham Narla, Jukka Westermarck
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))