Jette’s interest in stem cells began during her graduate studies at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland, focusing on asymmetric cell division in the lab of Prof. Yves Barral. Jette’s postdoctoral research was completed in the lab of Prof. Angelika Amon at MIT (USA). There she discovered cellular enlargement as an aging factor of blood stem cells.
Jette became an Assistant Professor at the University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2021 and the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) in 2023. She was awarded the competitive ERC Starting Grant in 2024.
Her independent research team is investigating how blood stem cells fail to maintain their functions during aging and disease.
jette.lengefeld@helsinki.fi
Soham received his Bachelor’s in Biotechnology from the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, finishing in the top 1% percentile in India in his discipline.
He pursued his Master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, and was awarded a fully-funded University of Helsinki doctoral candidate position for 3 years by the Doctoral Programme in Biomedicine.
Soham’s scientific goal is understanding how blood stem cells lose their ability to build blood (function) upon enlargement. In his free time he loves to boulder and hike.
soham.bharadwaj@helsinki.fi
Emilie did her doctoral studies in Toulouse (CBI, France) working on the regulation of ribosome biogenesis by the MAPK signaling pathway in the Henry/Henras lab. She has been attracted to the study of cellular aging since her early university years. She now wishes to elucidate the underlying mechanisms that connect changes in HSC size to their dysfunction during age-related diseases.
Congratulations, Emilie! She received a certificate of excellence by EMBO!
emilie.cerezo@helsinki.fi
Di’s journey began with undergraduate studies in clinical medicine at Hunan Normal University, followed by a Master’s degree in internal medicine at Fudan University in Shanghai (ranked 36th globally and 7th in China).
During his medical training, Di developed a strong interest in the biological mechanisms underlying aging and age-related diseases.
In October 2023, Di joined the Lengefeld team to investigate how cell size is linked to aging, metabolism, and stem cell function. His current work focuses on hematopoietic stem cells, combining quantitative imaging and functional assays to understand how size-dependent changes affect cell function. Di is funded by iCANDOC Doctoral Pilot Programme.
Outside the lab, Di enjoys traveling, calligraphy, and exploring new cuisines.
di.wu@helsinki.fi
Noel completed his undergraduate studies in Biology from the University of Salamanca (Spain). After earning his master degree in cell biology at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), he moved to the University of Trento (Italy) to pursue his PhD in synthetic biology in the Mansy lab. Then, he transitioned to the Ludwig Maximilians University-Munich (Germany) as a postdoctoral researcher in the Braun lab. Throughout both his PhD and postdoc periods, he used different approaches to construct synthetic cells to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles of living cells. Now, his research interest centers on investigating the role of stem cells in leukemia.
noel.yehmartin@helsinki.fi
Jonah Anderson earned his Bachelor and Masters in Life Science & Technology at Leiden University and Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) with a focus on cell biology.
His scientific interests lie with the mechanisms of aging. He is investigating the connection between cellular enlargement and aging in the human hematopoietic system with the goal of situating enlargement within the broader network of aging factors.
jonah.anderson@ki.se
Laura completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s of science in bioinformatics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Germany, and her PhD in computer science in the field of data mining at the University of Helsinki.
Her previous postdoctoral position was an iCAN subproject with Esa Pitkänen’s Machine Learning in Biomedicine group, together with the Hematological Genetics lab of Outi Kilpivaara and Ulla Wartiovaara-Kautto. There, her research focused on understanding how leukemias arise utilizing single-cell sequencing data and TP53 variant status of single-cells.
Laura’s current postdoctoral research at the University of Helsinki spans across both the Lengefeld and Esa Pitkänen groups, with a focus on cell size variability among donors and patients utilizing multi-omics data.
laura.langohr@helsinki.fi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralangohr/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0493-5551
Emilie has a PhD in Neuroscience from Aix-Marseille University (France), where she investigated neurodegeneration in the context of aging and Parkinson’s disease. She identified a potential common therapeutic target across age-related diseases, shaping her long-term focus on understanding aging mechanisms and developing strategies to counteract it.
Beyond academia, she worked in pharma L&D and as a scientific project manager in a startup, strengthening her ability to connect research with real-world applications and reinforcing her commitment to rigorous, impact-driven science.
Her current research explores how targeting aging in the hematopoietic system may promote systemic rejuvenation. She brings a multidisciplinary perspective and a strong translational mindset to collaborative research projects.
emilie.dinhvedrenne@helsinki.fi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilie-dinh/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3398-3205
Vandhana completed her Master’s at the University of Helsinki in the Genetics and Molecular Biosciences Program. She is currently funded by iCANDOC Doctoral Pilot Programme.
Her academic achievements include an AIR 28 (top 0.0933 percentile) in a national-level Life Sciences Examination in India, and a full scholarship for her Master’s studies which she completed in just 15 months.
Vandhana is interested in lifespan and hematopoietic stem cell biology. Her skills include advanced immunology, disease models and flow cytometry with a strong understanding of aging and health span.
She loves pencil sketching and painting in her spare time.
vandhana.sundarusha@helsinki.fi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vandhanasu/
Eden completed her Bachelor of Biotechnology & Cell Biology (Hons) before working as an an immunologist with the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, the CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and the QIMR Berghofer in Australia. She is a specialist in blood cancer in vivo with a focus on hematopoietic cell development and the role of diet and the microbiota in disease. She has also studied science communication with roles in state government and think-tanks such as the Australian Council of Learned Academies, influencing policy and raising public awareness of research. She is passionate about the exploration of big scientific questions and science advocacy.
Esther obtained her PhD in immunology at the University of Amsterdam and Sanquin Research in the Netherlands. During her PhD she studied the complement system, focusing on its activation and regulation on red blood cells. This led her to work on autoimmune hemolytic anemia, which sparked her interest in hematology.
As a postdoc at Karolinska Institutet, she performs translational research on cell size of immune cells and hematopoietic stem cells in the context of chronic myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. She aims to elucidate the role of cell size changes in disease context.
She was awarded a De Boer – van Staveren grant by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) to continue her work on autoantibodies against red blood cells as a guest researcher at Sanquin Research.
esther.de.boer@ki.se
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8739-3577
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecwdb/
Send us your CV, list of publications, motivation letter including a description of your research interests, and the names and telephone numbers of at least two referees at this email address: jette.lengefeld@helsinki.fi
We are looking forward to your applications!