Kaisa
Ivaska-Papaioannou
Areas of expertise
Biography
Senior Lecturer in Cell Biology and Metabolism
Docent in Cell Biology 2012
Teaching
Cell biology and histology for students in Medicine (first year) and Biomedicine (Bachelor’s Degree Programme). Textbooks Alberts et al. Essential Cell Biology, Young et al. Wheater's Functional Histology.
Laboratory course "Cell and Molecular Biology (laboratory work)" for students in Biomedicine
Laboratory course "Methods in Cell Biology" and for medical students selected for Molecular Medicine Research Track (2-yr programme)
Participating actively in the planning of the curriculum (in particular, first year BSc studies).
Research
Bone and energy metabolism
Our reserach group is interested in the crosstalk between bone cells and energy metabolism.
Bone is not only a structural organ but interacts with other cell types in the bone marrow microenvironment and interestingly, also with extra-skeletal cells via bone-derived hormones, osteokines.
Our current research focuses on role of osteokines in local and whole body energy metabolism, and in the interactions between bone-forming osteoblasts and bone marrow adipocytes in the bone microenvironment. We are also interested in the effects of type 2 diabetes on bone cells and bone metabolism. We use cell culture and cell-based methods, in vivo models and patient samples obtained from our clinical collaborators.
Our long term goal is to understand how changes in energy metabolism affect bone cells, bone marrow adipocytes and osteokines in the bone microenvironment.
Group members: Niki Jalava (doctoral researcher), Nicko Widjaja (doctoral researcher), Trine Link (undergraduate student)
Funding: Academy of Finland (2019-24), Laboratoriolääketieteen edistämissäätiö, Turku University Foundation, Diabetes Wellness Finland, Finnish Cultural Foundation
Alumni: Mlja Arponen (PhD 2024), Ronja Ojala (MD PhD 2024), Iida Karhu (MSc 2024), Aapo Alhokankare (MSc 2023), Yimeng Chen (MSc 2022), Sana Rais (MSc 2022), Nicko Widjaja (MSc 2021), Tiina Kähkönen (PhD 2019), Milja Arponen (MSc 2016), Anna-Reetta Virta (MSc 2014)