Event Details

1^st September at 14:00-15:00
Online event
in Zoom

Heidi Haikala, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) & HiLIFE, Translational Immunology Research Program (TRIMM), University of Helsinki and Tampere University
It’s about TIME: Mechanisms and biomarkers for lung cancer immunotherapy resistance

Link to join the seminar: https://utu.zoom.us/j/65205438709

Host: Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi)

Immunology seminar series is jointly organised by the Finnish Society for Immunology, InFLAMES Flagship and Turku Bioscience. For further information contact Anne Lahdenperä  (ankahy@utu.fi) or Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi), University of Turku.

Register for the Immunology Seminar Series email list to get calendar invitation to the online seminar: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/D29C32AA6E8A2F7A

Dr. Heidi Haikala (PhD, MBA) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Helsinki and a translational cancer biologist specializing in immuno-oncology, with a focus on tumor–immune interactions, therapy resistance mechanisms, and the development of human-relevant experimental systems to guide precision cancer treatment. She is also Vice Director of the Centre for Cancer Eradication Research at Tampere University. Her research integrates advanced ex vivo modeling, single-cell and spatial omics, and functional immunology to model therapeutic responses directly in patient-derived samples and identify actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities.

She completed her postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where she studied targeted therapy resistance in lung cancer. Her work contributed to the initiation of a clinical trial (NCT04676477) based on mechanistic studies of HER3-targeted therapy in EGFR-mutated lung cancer. She currently leads the HaikalaLab Immuno-Oncology Group at the University of Helsinki and Tampere University and is also affiliated with Helsinki University Hospital.

A central component of her research is the development of clinically actionable immuno-oncology modeling platforms using fully human patient-derived systems. This work has generated patent protection and led to the founding of Solid IO, a biotechnology spinout originating from her academic laboratory that develops human-relevant immuno-oncology models for drug development and precision oncology.

Selected publications

Alsaed B, Lin L, Son J,.. Haikala HM. Intratumor heterogeneity of EGFR expression mediates targeted therapy resistance and formation of drug tolerant microenvironment. Nature Communications. 2025;16(1):28.

Alsaed B, Smolander J, Laitinen H,.. Haikala HM. Ex vivo modeling of precision immuno-oncology responses in lung cancer.Science Advances. 2024;10(44).

Kremneva E, Smolander J, Peltokangas M,,.. Haikala HM. Precision tumor-on-chip for personalized assessment of drug efficacy and immune cell delivery. Cell Reports Methods. 2026;101475.