Current Members
Put the project together and, like most Project Leaders, pushes the administrative paper around (when he can understand it) and writes innumerable grant applications trying desparately to find adequate funding that only rarely seems to go where it is most needed. Supervision and coordination of the execution of the project, local and international collaborations and student research training. Coordinating the Myelination & Myelin Disease Consortium (MMDC) in an ambitious new project that was initiated at the beginning of 2004 in the context of the Tekes-funded NeoBio Program. When possible, he even gets to the lab bench, where he has participated as follows:
Joined The Myelin Group in January 2001 as a postgrad, when
we got (at last) our first big research grant (Finnish
Academy). She did most of the work aiming to characterize the
proteolytic activity responsible for human MAG degradation in the CNS.
Following a visit to Professor Eduardo Nobile-Orazio (
Joined The Myelin Group in May 2002 as a postgrad, when we got a bit more money. She participated in the characterization of the proteolytic activity responsible for human MAG degradation in the CNS, and also started looking for new MAG cytoplasmic domain ligands (Petri did not find them all). Outi is now adapting the myelinating coculture system to the mouse, so that we can fully benefit from the extraordinary potential of this model to analyse protein functional networks involved in PNS myelination and hereditary myelin disease.
Joined the Myelin Group in September 2004 as a postgrad. She is responsible for the identification and characterization of intracellular MAG ligands and for analyzing the regulation and roles of the interactions.
Was around right from the beginning of the project (Autumn 1995) until he produced the first Ph.D. thesis of the Myelin Group (including 7 publications) in Spring 2000. A real work-horse who actually did alot of the real important work and came up with some great ideas. When he wasn't helping to look for money to finance his studies, doing some of the less interesting teaching chores in the department, and doing another full-time job that actually provided a salary, he spent an enormous amount of time at the lab bench, where he participated as follows:
After defending his Ph. D. thesis, he moved to Prof. Rik
Wierenga's group (Biocenter Oulu & Department of Biochemistry,
Spent some time in the Myelin Group during his Military/Civil service year, participating in the study of MAG homodimerization.
As part of her pro-graduate research training project, she
undertook the successful construction and production of mutated GST/L-MAG
fusion proteins employed in various studies undertaken in the Myelin Group. She
is currently doing a Ph.D. in the group of Rik Wierenga (Biocenter Oulu and
Department of Biochemistry,
Spent a year in the Myelin Group during his Military/Civil
service, optimizing the purification and stabilization of native MAG from human
brain tissue. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. work (that was interupted by
his "Service" year) in the group of Sakari Kellokumpu (Department of
Biochemistry,
As part of her pro-graduate research training project, she undertook the construction and production of mutated His-tagged MAG cytoplasmic domain fusion proteins that we hope to employ in various studies undertaken in the Myelin Group. She also significantly improved the expression level of the old L-MAG/GST fusion protein, which, in its original form, was not only very weakly expressed, but also had a nasty tendency to degrade.