The University of Turku, Department of Clinical Medicine has awarded the Title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) in Otorhinolaryngology to Senior Research Fellow and Affiliated Group Leader, MD Sami Ventelä and Department of Life Technologies has awarded the Title of Docent (Adjunct Professor) in metabolomics to Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher, Ph.D. Santosh Lamichhane.

Sami Ventelä

After graduating MD, in 2002, and PhD in 2003 from University of Turku he has started translational cancer career pathway that combines direct patient work with head and neck cancer patients and active research work in the field of cancer. He graduated specialist in otorhinolaryngology in 2010, after which he was a post-doctoral reseracher in Jukka Westermarck’s research group in Turku Bioscience Centre alongside with his concurrent patient work in University Hospital of Turku.

His research focuses on identifying head and cancer patients suffering from increased mortality and finding novel biomarkers suitable for clinical use that could improve the poor survival rate of these patients.

– Whereas recent advances in both surgical and oncological treatments have contributed increase in quality of life of head and neck cancer patients, they have resulted in only negligible improvements in patient survival. Therefore, the need for new treatment-guiding biomarkers in hospitals is particularly great in these cancers, in which we have not yet succeeded to reduce patient mortality, says Sami.

Santosh Lamichhane

After PhD in 2017 from Aarhus University, Denmark in the field of Food metabolomics he has carried out postdoctoral research in Systems medicine group headed by Dr. Matej Oresic in Turku Bioscience Centre. His research focuses on metabolomics applications in biomedical research and related integrative bioinformatics.

-Metabolomics is an exciting and evolving research tool, which involves the study of small molecules in biological system. Metabolomics based study can shed light on mechanisms of diseases as well as provide useful diagnostic, prognostic and risk factor biomarkers, says Lamichhane.