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HUMAN-Law

Prof. Visa A. J. Kurki

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Faculty of Law

Animal law

Prof. Robert Luxenhofer

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Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Biomaterials

Assistant Prof. Heidi Haikala

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HiLIFE/FIMM, Faculty of Medicine

Cancer biology and in vitro modelling

HUMAN-Build

Dr. Johanna Englund

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HiLIFE/ Institute of Biotechnology

3R principles & non-animal methods

Dr. Anna Leopold

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HiLIFE/ Institute of Biotechnology

Synthetic biology & optogenetics

The HUMAN-Bio project consists of 3 thematic sections lead by our team leaders:

HUMAN-Ethos

PhD Candidate Tero Ijäs

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Faculty of Social Sciences

Bioethics

Learn more about our teams

HUMAN-Build: Englundlab

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Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki

 

We are focused on investigating how extracellular matrix (ECM) composition, organization, and dynamics regulate epithelial tissue architecture and tumor microenvironment during breast cancer initiation and progression. To the HUMAN-Bio project our team brings expertise on 3D organotypic tissue models and novel, animal-free culture systems as well as advanced imaging and image analysis.

 

Members of the lab involved in the HUMAN-Bio project:

  • Johanna Englund, PhD, Principal investigator

  • Amy Nyberg, MSc, PhD researcher

  • Mahsa Vousghifar, BSc, undergraduate student

  • Ali Hashmi, PhD, bioinformatician

Learn more about us and our work

  • Our website

  • Pally, D.* ; Englund JI*.; Naba, A.Understanding and targeting the tumour matrisome, Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol., in press, (2026)

  • Vuorenpää H. & Englund JI.,“Eläinkokeettomien menetelmien rooli lääketieteen tutkimuksessa ja lääkekehityksessä” (”Non-animal methods in biomedical research and drug development”) Duodecim 11/2026 https://www.duodecimlehti.fi/duo19421 (2026) review article, in Finnish

HUMAN-Build: HaikaLab

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FIMM & TRIMM, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki & MET Faculty, Tampere University

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Our research is dedicated to advancing novel targeted and immunotherapeutic combination strategies to improve clinical outcomes for patients with lung cancer. The central focus of our work is to elucidate the complex spatial organization and intercellular interactions within the tumor microenvironment, with particular emphasis on the dynamic interplay between tumor and stroma to uncover the cellular mechanisms that shape tumor progression and therapeutic response. We further translate these patient-derived insights into physiologically relevant, fully human experimental models in the laboratory. Within the HUMAN-Bio project, we contribute expertise in spatial transcriptomics and intercellular communication, the development of innovative functional assays, and the establishment of fully human models for high-throughput therapeutic screening.

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Members of the involved in HUMAN-Bio Project:

• Heidi Haikala, PhD/MBA, Principal Investigator
• Elena Kremneva, PhD, Research Coordinator
• Sameer Kumar Panda, PhD, PostDoc Researcher
• Lilja Lahtinen, MSc, Research Technician
• Iiris Sipari, MSc, Research Technician & HUMAN-Bio Project Coordinator

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Learn more about us at our website.

HUMAN-Build: Dr. Anna Leopold

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Faculty of Medicine & Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki 

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My research interests lie in the development of proteins with novel properties. Evolution has generated a remarkable diversity of proteins with unique properties and complex signaling pathways over billions of years, assembling proteins into molecular systems that sense environmental signals and translate them into cellular responses.

Today we can accelerate this process in the laboratory, reshuffling the components of these pathways like molecular LEGO to create new functions and cellular responses in human cells.

Within the Human-Bio project, I am adapting optogenetic and thermogenetic systems to control the secretion of cytokines, such as IL-6, from primary fibroblasts into the cell culture medium. Most currently available optogenetic systems have been screened, optimized and characterized in immortalized mammalian cell lines. Transferring these systems to primary fibroblasts therefore requires systemic evaluation and adaptation to ensure robust performance.

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Resources and publications:

- Protocols and inventory of plasmids and lentiviruses, generated for Human-Bio will be openly available here (you need an ORCID to log in): https://www.haku-sci.com/21c8a529-2ed0-439e-877a-2de7ddb7af3a

- Review: Engineering signalling pathways in mammalian cells

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HUMAN-Law and HUMAN-Ethos

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Faculty of Law and Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki 

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HUMAN-Bio treats law and ethics as part of how the models are designed in the first place. Two of the project's four work packages are devoted to this.

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HUMAN-Law maps the legal and regulatory terrain that non-animal methods have to cross. The work package identifies what genuinely slows the adoption of human-based models, distinguishing hard legal constraints from soft ones and from merely apparent, superficial obstacles that persist out of habit or caution. Alongside this, the work package addresses the questions that human-derived models raise on their own account, including how consent, ownership and benefit-sharing should operate when patient-derived tissue becomes a complex and potentially commercial system.

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Members of HUMAN-Law

· Visa A J Kurki, PhD, Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the Helsinki Animal Law Centre; lead of HUMAN-Law

· Julia Sundström, LLM, Doctoral Researcher

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HUMAN-Ethos examines the ethical and societal dimensions of human-derived modelling, and the scientific culture that keeps animal models in place as the default standard of evidence. The work package investigates the status and ethical implications of human-derived mode The work also assesses the institutional and societal factors that influence the validation, acceptance, and adoption of new biomedical methods. 

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Members of HUMAN-Ethos

· Tero Ijäs, MA, Doctoral researcher; Lead of HUMAN-Ethos

Relevant resources:

· Visa A J Kurki and Paulina Siemieniec, "Towards an Agency Turn in Animal Law" (2025) 45(4) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 923

· Visa A J Kurki, A Theory of Legal Personhood (Oxford University Press 2019)

· Tero Ijäs, “Biologian filosofia”, (2022), Logos-ensyklopedia.

· Tero Ijäs and Rami Koskinen, “Exploring biological possibility through synthetic biology” (2021), European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11(2).

· Tero Ijäs, “Design Under Randomness: How Variation Affects the Engineering of Biological Systems” (2018), Biological Theory 3.

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You can find more information here soon

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