Researcher of the Month

March 2024

K. Albin Johansson Research Professor Johanna Ivaska studied biochemistry at the University of Turku since she was interested in how cells and the human body work but never wanted to become a physician. After her MSc degree, she wanted to join a research group working on some aspect of human disease. In Prof. Jyrki Heino’s laboratory in the University of Turku, Johanna explored the role of collagen binding integrins in thrombosis and fibrosis. After obtaining her PhD in 2000, she wanted to focus on cell signalling in cancer and moved to London to work in Prof. Peter Parker’s Protein Phosphorylation Laboratory in the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute. After her postdoc, she was extremely lucky to have the possibility to move back to Turku and to start work in a new unit in the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, directed by Prof. Olli Kallioniemi. 

Seeing is believing: novel microscopy technologies unravel malignant cell behaviour in cancer

At the VTT, in Medical Biotechnology Unit, Johanna established her research group “Cell adhesion and Cancer” in 2003. The focus on her group was from the start to investigate how extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, such as collagen, interact with cells and how cells respond to external cues via their ECM receptors, integrins. Johanna loves microscopy and really attests to “seeing is believing”. Combining imaging with mechanistic cell biology is a powerful way to unravel fundamental processes that underlie malignant cell behaviour in cancer.

It is good to go back to the bench and do it yourself

In 2013, Johanna moved to her current position in the University of Turku. In 2014, she was a Visiting Professor at the Institute Curie in Paris. Currently, she is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Glasgow and CR-UK Beatson Institute for Cancer Research. Johanna thinks that the best way to learn new things is to go back to the bench and do it yourself. In Paris, she was learning mechanobiology and at the Beatson working with cancer models in vivo. Currently, her main research interests relate to the biological role of integrins in cancer progression, mechanobiology, and metastasis. 

Adipocytes secreting IGFBP2 can limit breast cancer invasion

It is well-established that the transition of breast cancer from a local in situ tumour to an invasive carcinoma is linked to increased metastasis and considerably poorer patient prognosis. In a recent study IGFBP2 secretion by mammary adipocytes limits breast cancer invasion, published in Science Advance, Johanna’s researcher group discovered that healthy breast fat cells (adipocytes) act as an anti-invasive barrier and prevent the critical invasive step in breast cancer progression. Specifically, post-doctoral scientist James Conway with the help of Dr Emilia Peuhu’s research group and clinicians from Turku University Hospital revealed that breast adipocytes secrete a potent anti-invasive factor, insulin-like growth factor–binding protein 2 (IGFBP2), and that IGFBP2-secreting adipocytes are lost during breast cancer progression. 

Despite the vast literature documenting increased cancer risk in patients with older age or with a high mammographic density (i.e., loss of adipocytes and increased fibroglandular tissue), the specific role of healthy adipocytes and the impact of their depletion have been surprisingly overlooked. These new data indicate restoration of IGFBP2 (or adipocyte) levels as a potential measure against breast cancer progression. The discoveries also extend towards understanding the link between increased mammary density and poorer patient prognosis. This novel finding is of interest to many: the study was published in July 2023, and it has now (in March 2024) been downloaded more than 4900 times.

Running, archipelago, and reading counterbalance work

Johanna loves to run and enjoys the outdoors: hiking, boating, and spending time in the outer archipelago of Turku. Whenever she has time, she reads fiction and dives into adventures, dreams, historic events, future dystrophic scenes, and fantasy worlds.