WestermarckJukka University of TurkuFinland

Jukka Westermarck is a Professor of Cancer Biology, and Research Director, in the Turku Bioscience Centre at University of Turku, Finland. Westermarck earned his medical degree in 1996, and his PhD degree in 1998 from University of Turku. He was working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dirk Bohmann during 1999-2001 in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. After being appointed as Academy Fellow by the Academy of Finland, he established his own research group at Turku Centre for Biotechnology in 2002. In 2006-2009 he was appointed as a group leader in the Institute of Medical Technology at University of Tampere, and after that he returned back to Turku due to his appointment as a tenure Research Director of Turku Centre for Biotechnology, and as a Professor of Cancer Biology at the Faculty of Medicine. In 2012, he worked as a visiting Professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and in 2021 at IFOM, Milan. Professor Westermarck received young researcher prize from Finnish Medical Association Duodecim 2007, and Anders Jahre young investigator prize 2009 from University of Oslo, Norway. In 2017 he became an elected member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. In 2020, President of Finland conferred a Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland honor on him. Professor Westermarck is one of the international leaders of the phosphatase field. The work of Westermarck laboratory focuses on role and regulation of phosphatases, particularly tumor suppressor protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in human cancers. Based on this work his group has identified several novel signaling principles how PP2A regulates cancer progression, as well as potential novel cancer therapy targets and diagnostic biomarkers. He has contributed to or served as a main organizer for three EMBO Europhosphatase meetings and been an invited speaker to most of the international phosphatase meetings during the past 15 years. Furthermore, he is an active inventor, and a founder of a cancer diagnostics start-up company Thestra Ltd. Selected publications: Momeny et al., DUSP6 inhibition overcomes Neuregulin/HER3-driven therapy tolerance in HER2+ breast cancer. EMBO Molecular Medicine 16: 1603-1629, 2024 Pavic at al., Structural mechanism for inhibition of PP2A-B56 and oncogenicity by CIP2A. Nature Communications, 2023 Vainonen et al., Druggable Cancer Phosphatases, Science Translational Medicine, 2021 Laine et al., CIP2A interacts with TopBP1 and drives basal-like breast cancer tumorigenesis, Cancer Research, 2021 Mäkelä et al., Discovery of a Novel CIP2A Variant (NOCIVA) with clinical relevance in predicting TKI resistance in myeloid leukemias, Clinical Cancer Research, 2021 Kauko et al., PP2A inhibition is a druggable MEK inhibitor resistance mechanism in KRAS-mutant lung cancer cells, Science Translational Medicine, 2018