The Orion Research Foundation awarded two special grants for both meritorious research and public advocacy for research funding.
On 27 October, Professor Jukka Westermarck of the University of Turku was awarded a special grant of €100 000 from the Orion Research Foundation.
Westermarck is Research Director at the Turku Bioscience Centre and Professor of Cancer Biology at the Department of Medical Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Turku. He received his Licentiate of Medicine in 1996 and his Doctor of Medicine in 1998 from the University of Turku.
According to Lääkärilehti, Mr Westermarck has been instrumental in the development of a new proteomics-based protein-interaction TAP purification method for the identification of large protein complexes in cancer cells.
Westermarck’s group has successfully developed this methodology further and used it in their own cancer signalling studies.
In addition to his scientific activities, Westermarck has been active in improving research conditions. For example, he has been instrumental in the establishment of the National Drug Development Centre in Turku to promote the commercialisation of discoveries made at universities.
Another recipient of the Foundation’s €100 000 grant was Associate Professor Tiina Siikanen from the University of Helsinki.