BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.2//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:943@biocityturku.fi DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260901T140000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Helsinki:20260901T150000 DTSTAMP:20260827T105918Z URL:https://biocityturku.fi/events/immunology-seminar-11/ SUMMARY:Immunology Seminar DESCRIPTION:1st September at 14:00-15:00\nOnline event\nin Zoom\n\nHeidi Ha ikala\, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) &\; HiLIFE\, Tr anslational Immunology Research Program (TRIMM)\, University of Helsinki a nd Tampere University\nIt’s about TIME: Mechanisms and biomarkers for lu ng cancer immunotherapy resistance\n\nLink to join the seminar: https://ut u.zoom.us/j/65205438709\n\nHost: Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi)\n\nImmun ology seminar series is jointly organised by the Finnish Society for Immun ology\, InFLAMES Flagship and Turku Bioscience. For further information co ntact Anne Lahdenperä  (ankahy@utu.fi) or Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.f i)\, University of Turku.\n\nRegister for the Immunology Seminar Series em ail list to get calendar invitation to the online seminar: https://link.we bropolsurveys.com/S/D29C32AA6E8A2F7A\n\n \;\n\nDr. Heidi Haikala (PhD\ , MBA) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Helsinki and a trans lational cancer biologist specializing in immuno-oncology\, with a focus o n tumor–immune interactions\, therapy resistance mechanisms\, and the de velopment 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 mo del therapeutic responses directly in patient-derived samples and identify actionable therapeutic vulnerabilities.\n\nShe completed her postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School\, whe re she studied targeted therapy resistance in lung cancer. Her work contri buted to the initiation of a clinical trial (NCT04676477) based on mechani stic studies of HER3-targeted therapy in EGFR-mutated lung cancer. She cur rently leads the HaikalaLab Immuno-Oncology Group at the University of Hel sinki and Tampere University and is also affiliated with Helsinki Universi ty Hospital.\n\nA 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 le d to the founding of Solid IO\, a biotechnology spinout originating from h er academic laboratory that develops human-relevant immuno-oncology models for drug development and precision oncology.\n\n \;\n\nSelected publi cations\n\nAlsaed B\, Lin L\, Son J\,.. Haikala HM. Intratumor heterogenei ty of EGFR expression mediates targeted therapy resistance and formation o f drug tolerant microenvironment. Nature Communications. 2025\;16(1):28.\n \nAlsaed B\, Smolander J\, Laitinen H\,.. Haikala HM. Ex vivo modeling of precision immuno-oncology responses in lung cancer.Science Advances. 2024\ ;10(44).\n\nKremneva E\, Smolander J\, Peltokangas M\,\,.. Haikala HM. Pre cision tumor-on-chip for personalized assessment of drug efficacy and immu ne cell delivery. Cell Reports Methods. 2026\;101475. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://biocityturku.fi/wp-content/uploads/haika la.jpg CATEGORIES:BiocityTurku events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Helsinki X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Helsinki BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260329T040000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:EEST END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR