Research Teams
The Finnish breast Cancer Consortium is co-lead by Drs Juha Klefström and Johanna Englund. Currently, our research is conducted primarily at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital (HUS), yet our aim is to grow as a nationwide consortium with researchers from all Finnish universities and research institutes.
Juha Klefström, PhD
Juha Klefström is a cancer researcher specializing in basic and translational oncology. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Helsinki in 1997 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Gerard Evan in London and later at UC San Francisco, focusing on MYC oncogene–induced cell death. Since 2003, he has led an independent lab at the University of Helsinki, with affiliations at the Finnish Cancer Institute, Helsinki University Hospital, and UCSF. His group develops patient-derived models to study how oncogenes alter metabolism, cell death, and the tumor immune microenvironment, with the goal of designing therapies that selectively kill cancer cells while activating immune responses. He currently serves as Research Professor at the Finnish Cancer Institute, is affiliated with FICAN South and the University of Helsinki’s Cancer Medicine Program, and holds an Adjunct Professorship at UCSF. Klefström’s work continues to drive innovation in cancer therapy.
Johanna Englund, PhD
Johanna Englund earned her PhD in 2012 at the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine, where she studied how breast epithelial architecture regulates oncogenic growth. She then did her postdoctoral research with Dr. Pekka Katajisto at the Institute of Biotechnology at University of Helsinki, investigating how the extracellular matrix influences mammary lineages and stem cell function. She also worked at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden focusing on developing novel culture methods for patient-derived cells. Her research group works in the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki since 2023. The Englund lab investigates how interactions between cells and their surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) contribute to breast cancer initiation and progression into invasive disease. Her research group uses different organotypic model systems of human and mouse mammary epithelium and patient derived tissue samples to understand the role of ECM in breast tumorigenesis.
James Conway, PhD
James Conway is a cancer researcher with expertise in intravital microscopy, image-based screening, and three-dimensional assays of the tumour microenvironment. He completed his PhD in the lab of Prof. Paul Timpson at the Garvan Institute in Sydney, where he developed a dual imaging approach to study live mouse pancreatic tumours. His thesis combined nanoparticle reporters to track oxygen levels with Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy of therapeutic response utilizing a FRET reporter to monitor PI3K pathway activity. Following this, he pursued postdoctoral training in Prof. Johanna Ivaska’s lab at the University of Turku, where he established multiple 3D in vitro assays and image-based screening systems to better understand breast cancer invasive progression. In September 2024, he founded his own lab at the University of Helsinki, where his team investigates the relationship between the tumour microenvironment and metastatic progression
Pauliina Munne, PhD
Dr. Pauliina Munne earned her PhD in developmental biology and physiology from the University of Helsinki in 2010, completing her studies in three years with three first-author publications, including one in Science. Her work was recognized with the award for the best PhD thesis. She conducted postdoctoral research in breast cancer biology at Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland and later coordinated genome profiling at Genome Profiling at the Biomedicum Functional Genomics Unit, gaining extensive expertise in next-generation sequencing technologies. Since 2015, Dr. Munne has served as Senior Scientist in Professor Klefström’s group leading research in 3D tissue culture systems. She has developed innovative ex vivo models for live breast cancer samples, enabling precision medicine approaches particularly for hormone receptor-positive breast cancers. Her research focuses on cellular plasticity and its link to metabolic identity, contributing to the understanding of cancer progression and treatment resistance.
Peeter Karihtala, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology
Peeter Karihtala is a clinician–scientist in translational oncology whose work bridges academic research and comprehensive cancer care. He serves as Research Director at HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center (since 2020) and Professor of Oncology at the University of Helsinki (since 2021), leading institutional cancer research strategy and fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations across clinical, molecular, and data-driven domains. Karihtala’s research focuses on breast cancer and biomarker-guided treatment optimization, integrating clinical cohorts with advanced experimental models to improve risk stratification and therapy selection. He has supervised a number of Ph.D. theses and is the principal investigator in several clinical breast cancer trials.