About
The research actitivies are managed by the PIs of the six research groups at PSL. Besides the post-doctoral researchers, senior researchers, and PhD students, we also host a varying number of visiting researchers/professors and MSc students especially within our own programmes in Drug Development and Medical Technology (FM) & Pharmacy (Provisor), as well as Drug Discovery & Development (UTU) and Biomedical Imaging (UTU & ÅAU) as well as ERASMUS and other interns.
Principal Investigators (Group Leaders)
Pharmaceutical Development
Head of Discipline (Pharmacy)
Tel + 358 2 215 3255
email jessica.rosenholm@abo.fi
Dr. Outi Salo-Ahen
Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Head of BSc (Pharm.) Education
Tel +358 2 215 4009
email outi.salo-ahen@abo.fi

Prof. Tapani Viitala
Novel Drug Formulations
50% University of Helsinki
Tel + 358 50 415 4529
email tapani.viitala@abo.fi

Dr. Anne Filppula
Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Head of MSc (Pharm.) Education
Tel + 358 50 340 1124
email anne.filppula@abo.fi
Assoc. Prof. Hongbo Zhang
Tel +358 2 215 4009
email hongbo.zhang@abo.fi
Dr. Xiaoju Wang
Academy of Finland Research Fellow
2020-2025 (20% affiliated with Natural Materials Technology)
email xiaoju.wang@abo.fi
Affiliated Group Leaders/PIs
Prof. Niklas Sandler Chief Technology Officer at Nanoform
Dr. Tuomas Näreoja, Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Senior researchers/Postdocs
Dr. Kuldeep Bansal
Dr. Xiaoyu Xu
Dr. Jixiang Wang
Dr. Neeraj Prabhakar
Dr. Özge Karadas
Dr. Mirja Palo
Dr. Aryane Vigato
Dr. Parthiban Marimuthu
Dr. Chang Liu
Dr. Rajendra Bhadane
Dr. Fadak Howaili
Dr. Yunru Yu
Entrepreneur in Residence (Commercial Lead) Heidi Koivisto, Comitell project (Business Finland).
Visiting Professor Sergey Filippov, University of Reading, UK.
Visiting Professor Yue Ma, Jiangsu University, China.
Lecturers (in addition to above)
Ulla-Mari Parkkisenniemi-Kinnunen, FaD (Senior lecturer)
Anne Eriksson, farmaceut, FM (University teacher)
Johan Nyman, DI, FM (University teacher)
PhD Students
Rawand Abdulrahman, M.Sc. (Pharm.)
Ida Alanko, M.Sc. (Pharm.Sci.)
Emel Bakay, M.Sc. (Biomed. Eng.)
Yu Chen, M.Med. (Surgery)
Fanny Frejborg, M.Sc.(Drug Discovery & Development)
Xiwen Geng, M.Sc. (Pathogen Biology)
Wali Inam, M.Sc. (Drug Discovery & Development)
Yuanyuan Jiang, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Oliver Koivisto, M.Sc. (Genetics)
Vishal Kumar, M.Pharm. (Pharmacology)
Chengcheng Li, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Johan Nyman, M.Sc.(Chem. Eng. & Pharm. Sci.)
Xiaodong Ma, M.Sc. (Organic Chemistry)
Alaa Mahran, M.Sc.(Pharm.)
Rathna Mathiyalagan M.Sc.(Chem.)
Dhayakumar Rajan Prakash, M.Sc. (Nano. Med.)
Govardhanam Narayana Prakirth, M.Sc. (BIMA)
Meixin Ran, M.Sc. (Pharm. Sci.)
Sara Rosenberg, M.Sc.(Pharm.)
Atefeh Saadabadi, M.Sc.
Erica Sjöholm M.Sc.(Pharm.Sci)
Anna Slita, M.Sc.(Biol.)
Jiaqi Yan, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Wu Yang, M.Med. (Clinical Medicine)
Jyoti Verma, M.Pharm.
Li Wang, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Shengyi Wang, M.Sc. (Microbiol.)
Yonghui Wang, M. Sc. (Pharm, Cell Biology)
Longxi Wu, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Kexin Yi, M. Sc. (Pharm.)
Yu Zhang, M.Sc. (Med.)
Wenhui Zhou, M.Med.
Pengzhen Zhuang, M.Sc. (Mater Sci and Engineer)
Ezgi Özliseli, M.Sc. (BIMA)
Docents
Mia Bengtström (Pharma Industry Finland) - Docent in Industrial Pharmaceutical Research and Pharmacovigilance
Pirjo Tajarobi (AstraZeneca) - Docent in Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology
Mervi Vasänge (OrionPharma) - Docent in Industrial Preclinical Drug Development
Adyary Fallarero (ThermoFischer) - Docent in Bioassays and Biomolecular Screening
Outi Salo-Ahen (ÅAU) - Docent in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Design
Petri Ihalainen (MetGen) - Docent in Printing Technologies in Fabrication of Drug Delivery Systems
Malena Skogman (UniHelsinki) - Docent in Pharmaceutical Microbiology
Tapani Viitala (UniHelsinki) - Docent in Pharmaceutical Surface Chemistry and Biophysics
Björn Södergård (Sveriges läkarförbund) - Docent in Social Pharmacy and Pharmacoeconomics
Carina Stenfors (Orion Pharma) - Docent in Drug Research
Niklas Sandler (Nanoform, Curify) - Docent in Advanced Pharmaceutical Technologies
ÅAU Honorary Doctor & Adjunct Professor (Drug Development and Diagnostics) 2016 - 2018
Thomas Rades, University of Copenhagen
M.Sc. students
Various MSc students especially from our own Master's programme in Drug Development & Medical Technology (from 2021 MSc in Pharmacy) as well as from the joint MSc programme in Biomedical Imaging between University of Turku (UTU) and Åbo Akademi University as well as Drug Discovery and Development (UTU) take part in our activities.
Alumni & Visiting researchers
Current:
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Elie Shar, MSc. Internship, University of Umeå (2022-)
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Saule Kopbayeva, visiting PhD students, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2022)
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Svetlana Kovtareva, visiting PhD students, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (2022)
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Jessica Salo, MSc thesis worker (2022-)
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Joni Eklund, research associate, University of Turku (2022-)
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Olga Bulgyna, intern, University of Turku (2022-2023)
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Akash James, intern, University of Turku (2022-)
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Aliaa Ali, intern, University of Turku (2022-)
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Alexandra Andrisinova, intern, University of Vienna (2022)
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Ceren Celik, ERASMUS intern, İzmir Institute of Technology, Turkey (2021-22)
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Marcela Rivera, MSc. Internship, University of Turku (Biomedical imaging) (2021-22)
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Şerife Beyza Türe, MSc. Internship, Bülent Ecevit University, Erasmus, Turkey (2021)
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Alaa Ahmed Abd El-rhman, Teaching and research assistant, Pharmaceutics Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University, Egypt (2021-)
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Oskar Backman, MSc thesis worker at Natural Materials Technology (2021-)
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Sofia Lisina, visiting PhD student (Pharm.) SPCPU, Russia (2019-)
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Akmal Nipu, MSc thesis worker (ÅA/Bioimaging)
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Anand Kalgudi, MSc thesis worker, UTU / Bioinformatics
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Lilly Holm, MSc thesis worker (2019-)
PhD Graduates (and their LinkedIn pages):
Olli Salin (2011)
Malena Skogman (2012)
Daniela Karlsson (2013)
Mohit Narwal (2014)
Didem Sen Karaman (2016)
Diti Desai (2016)
Eva von Haartman (2017)
Mirja Palo (2017)
Suvi Manner (2017)
Hossein Vakili (2018)
Neeraj Prabhakar (2018)
Emrah Yildir (2018)
Tina Gulin-Sarfraz (2019)
Zehua Liu (co-supervised, 2019)
Henrika Wickström (2020)
Heidi Öblom (2021)
Chang Liu (2022)
Alumni:
İlayda Özliseli, lab intern, Hacettepe University, Turkey (2022)
Cengizhan Susuz, ERASMUS+ intern, Anadolu University, Turkey (2022)
Silva Hazer, summer intern, ÅAU (2022)
Entrepeneur in Residence (Commercial Lead) Sebastian Soidinsalo, Jasmine PRO (2021-2022)
Dr. Xue Zhang, postdoctoral researcher (2020-2021)
Yonghai Feng, Visiting professor, Jiangsu University, China (2021-2022)
Minjia Meng, Visiting professor, Jiangsu University, China (2021-2022)
Nie Qi, MSc thesis worker, Åbo Akademi University (2022)
Behice Süren, ERASMUS+ intern, İzmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey (2021-22)
Dr. Mijanur Rahman, postdoctoral researcher jointly with Laboratory of Molecular Science and Engineering (2021-2022)
Akash James, MSc thesis worker (UTU / Biomedical Science, Medicinal and Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry) (2021-2022)
Jovana Degenek, HPC-Europa3 guest researcher, Serbia (2022)
Aliaa Ali, summer intern & MSc thesis worker, MSc programme in Drug Discovery and Development (UTU) (2021-2022)
Salim Baali, visiting PhD student, Algeria (2022)
Jasmin Pyrhönen, MSc thesis worker (2020-21)
Ronja Hellman, MSc thesis worker (2019-21)
Linda Wilkman, MSc (Pharm.Sci) thesis worker (2017-21)
Kia Peura, MSc (Pharm.Sci.) thesis worker (2020-21)
Lisa Lindfors, MSc (Pharm.Sci.) thesis worker (2020-21)
Anna-Mari Haapanen-Saaristo, laboratory intern, Biomedical Imaging MSc programme (2020-2021)
Visiting Prof. Sergey Filippov, Harvard University, USA (2019-2021)
Paulina Frolovaité, MSc thesis worker, UTU/ Bioinformatics MSc programme (2020-2021)
Fadak Howaili, visiting PhD student (Nanobiotechnology), Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran (2019-2020)