Tuula Heinonen Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Director of  FICAM
Dr Heinonen,  Ph.D. in toxicology has adjunct professorships both at the University of Turku (biochemical toxicology) and at the University of Helsinki (biochemistry). She is European registered toxicologist. Dr Heinonen is the director of the Finnish Centre for Alternative Methods, FICAM. Her responsibility has been to set up and is to manage the GLP-grade centre, FICAM.

Before FICAM Dr. Heinonen worked in pharma industry for 17 years in various positions such as Study director in in vivo and in vitro non-clinical regulatory (general toxicity and genotoxicity) and biological mechanistic studies, as laboratory head and department manager and also as R&D director. She set up several laboratories into GLP. She gained experience from clinical trials when acting as Clinical study director. Dr Heinonen has participated in several meetings with regulatory bodies (EMEA, FDA, national) with regard to various stages of pharmaceutical development including scientific advices on whole development plan. Before joining to pharmaceutical industry Dr. Heinonen worked at the Institute of Occupational Health performing animal toxicity and in vitro toxicity studies on chemical substances and using that data in carcinogenic risks assessments.

Timo Ylikomi, MD, Professor
Dr. Timo Ylikomi has received his MD and PhD at the University of Tampere. He has carried out research work in the Medical School of the UTA and in France (Strasbourg and Paris). Timo Ylikomi  is a professor of cell biology at the Department of Cell Biology and at FICAM. He is currently directing research in cell biology, steroid hormone action, functional genomics, human adult stem cells, tissue engineering and cell engineering. The research is multidisciplinary (biomedical engineering) combining clinical medicine, cell/molecule biology and engineering.

Tarja Toimela, Ph.D.
Tarja Toimela obtained her MSc degree in Jyväskylä University cell biology as her major. She obtained her PhD degree in Tampere University Medical School in the field of in vitro toxicology (2004). Tarja Toimela has wide expertise in cell culturing, cell analysis techniques and in in vitro toxicology methods.

Kimmo Savinainen, Ph.D.

Kimmo Savinainen has qualified as a Doctor of Philosophy (cancer biology) from the University of Tampere (UTA) in the year 2006. Master of Science studies Savinainen did in the University of Jyväskylä (Main subject: Cell Biology). In addition, Savinainen has a technician degree of the health and environment technique (the Technical School of Mikkeli), and he has completed the basic studies of both administrative science and company law (UTA).

In FICAM, Savinainen works as a study director in the development work of the skin sensitization model and participates in GLP validation.

  Marika Mannerström, Ph.Lic.

Riina Sarkanen, M.Sc.
Riina Sarkanen has obtained her M. Sc. degree in cell biology in University of Jyväskylä 2002. She has worked as a PhD student in The University of Tampere in the development of a bioactive soft tissue implant. Sarkanen has expertise on human primary cells and human adult mesenchymal stem cells, their differentiation and characterization, as well as retro- and lentivirus infections. Sarkanen's research focus is on the development of advanced human angiogenesis in vitro models as well as mesenchymal stem cells and their use in in vitro cell models and in soft tissue engineering applications. At FICAM, Sarkanen has worked as a Study Director of a GLP - method validation study.

  Heidi Diallo, M.Sc.
Heidi Diallo (née Nevala)  has obtained her M.Sc. from the University of Jyväskylä  Department of Biological and Environmental Science in 2003. Since then she has been working in the University of Tampere Medical School. Her research area is the development of a blood-brain barrier model based on human cells. Heidi Diallo is also a board member of the Finnish Consensus Platform for Alternatives (FINCOPA) and a debuty member of the Finnish National Ethical Committee of Animal Experiments.

Pauliina Salonen, M.Sc.
Pauliina Salonen graduated from the Master's Degree Programme in Toxicology at the University of Eastern Finland, where she has done the experimental research in the unit of anatomy of the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Kuopio.. The title of the Masters’ thesis is “The effect of ultraviolet –B to organotypic skin model”.

In FICAM she works as Ph. D. student in the research developing in vitro neurotoxicity models.

Hanna Vuorenpää, M.Sc.
Hanna Vuorenpää has her previous profession as a medical laboratory technologist (Turku University of Applied Sciences, 2002) with specialization to cell- and molecular biology. After graduation she worked in Turku University Department of Medical Microbiology. Later on she continued studying in Oulu University in the Degree Programme in Biology majoring in genetics. Her M.Sc. –thesis “Stem Cell Based Angiogenesis Model” was performed in FICAM at 2009. Based on her previous working experience she has expertise in molecular biology. In FICAM her focus is on human tissue primary cells, stem cells and angiogenesis assays. Also working in GLP method validation is part of her job description in FICAM.

Hanna Tähti, Ph.D., Professor emer.
Hanna Tähti has reached the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki. In Tampere University she has a long career in research in the field of toxicology. Her special area is neurotoxicology.  Her main interest is to develop in vitro alternative methods for the replacement of the use of animal experiments. In FICAM, she has a scientific advisory role. She is active in research projects developing in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models for the evaluation of drug effects on the central nervous system.

Prof. Tähti is European registered toxicologist. She has acted as a board member (1997-2003) of EUROTOX, where she is the honorary member since 2005. She was the first Chairman (2003-2007) of the Finnish Consensus Platform for Alternatives (FINCOPA), which was established in Tampere in 2003, and she is still active in the board of FINCOPA.

Liisa Kanninen, PhD student

Technical personnel:

Maaret Vaani

Paula Helpiölä

Mirja Hyppönen

Hilkka Mäkinen