Event Details

3rd February at 14-15
Virtual event
in Zoom
Flyer

Taija Mäkinen, University of Helsinki
Lymphatic vasculature as a guardian of tissue homeostasis and inflammation

Host: Professor Riitta Lahesmaa (rilahes@utu.fi)

Link to join the seminar: https://utu.zoom.us/j/69783530648

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

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.

Taija Mäkinen obtained her PhD from the University of Helsinki and completed postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany. She previously served as a group leader at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute (now the Francis Crick Institute) and later as Professor at Uppsala University. In 2024, she returned to Finland and currently serves as Director of the Wihuri Research Institute and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on the mechanisms regulating the lymphatic vascular system and its roles in health and disease.

Selected publications

Kraft M, Schoofs H, Petkova M, Andrade J, Grosso AR, Benedito R, De Roo AK, Boon LM, Vikkula M, Kapp FG, Hägerling R, Potente M, Mäkinen T. Angiopoietin-TIE2 feedforward circuit promotes PIK3CA-driven venous malformations. Nat Cardiovasc Res. 2025 Jul;4(7):801-820. doi: 10.1038/s44161-025-00655-9.

Schoofs H, Daubel N, Schnabellehner S, Grönloh MLB, Palacios Martínez S, Halme A, Marks AM, Jeansson M, Barcos S, Brakebusch C, Benedito R, Engelhardt B, Vestweber D, Gaengel K, Linsenmeier F, Schürmann S, Saharinen P, van Buul JD, Friedrich O, Smith RS, Majda M, Mäkinen T. Dynamic cytoskeletal regulation of cell shape supports resilience of lymphatic endothelium. Nature. 2025 May;641(8062):465-475. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08724-6.

Petkova M, Kraft M, Stritt S, Martinez-Corral I, Ortsäter H, Vanlandewijck M, Jakic B, Baselga E, Castillo SD, Graupera M, Betsholtz C, Mäkinen T. Immune-interacting lymphatic endothelial subtype at capillary terminals drives lymphatic malformation. J Exp Med. 2023 Apr 3;220(4):e20220741. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220741.

Hernández Vásquez MN, Ulvmar MH, González-Loyola A, Kritikos I, Sun Y, He L, Halin C, Petrova TV, Mäkinen T. Transcription factor FOXP2 is a flow-induced regulator of collecting lymphatic vessels. EMBO J. 2021 Jun 15;40(12):e107192. doi: 10.15252/embj.2020107192.

Martinez-Corral I, Zhang Y, Petkova M, Ortsäter H, Sjöberg S, Castillo SD, Brouillard P, Libbrecht L, Saur D, Graupera M, Alitalo K, Boon L, Vikkula M, Mäkinen T. Blockade of VEGF-C signaling inhibits lymphatic malformations driven by oncogenic PIK3CA mutation. Nat Commun. 2020 Jun 8;11(1):2869. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16496-y.