FINBB Team and Biobank Network
FINBB team works together with all the Finnish public biobanks and their background organizations in the biobank network. Over a hundred biobank professionals work in Finnish public biobanks across Finland. In addition to this, the FINBB network includes e.g. IT, legal, research and management professionals from the biobank background organizations.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Mervi Ahlroth
Mervi Ahlroth, PhD, is FINBB's Chief Executive Officer as of June 2025.
Mervi has a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Before joining FINBB, she has worked in various management positions in biomedical as well as health- and social care environments. At Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, she was the Head of Department in Stem Cell, Tissue and R&D, before becoming Chief Operating Officer (COO) at a biotechnology start-up. In 2010 she was appointed as CEO of the Finnish Rheumatism Association, one of Finland's largest patient organisations. Her most recent role before FINBB was as CEO of Kauniala Hospital Ltd.
Chief Legal Officer (CLO)
Tom Southerington
Tom works as FINBB’s lawyer. As Chief Legal Officer, Tom is responsible for compliance, IP, contracts and so forth. He is also an active member in various expert forums for research related legal and ethical issues, including the medical Ethics Committee of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. Tom is a bench-trained lawyer and holds a MSc in industrial engineering and management. In his spare time Tom does muscle-ups at the local Crossfit gym and works on holiday cottage repairs and improvements.
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Pauli Wihuri
As FINBB’s CIO Pauli (M.Sc. in mathematics, computer science and pedagogics) is responsible for Fingenious digital services and facilitating Finnish Biobanks IT and data expert network. Pauli has 40+ years of IT experience obtained at various positions ranging from self-owned company and university data center to global corporations. He has worked for global corporations such as KPMG, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Microsoft. Before joining FINBB he worked as technology and security leadership advisor at KPMG. Pauli's enduring motivation is to ensure technology and IT to be the sustainable business enabler. He always seeks for optimal ways to ensure that enterprises achieve their strategic, tactical and operational objectives and that their valuable assets are protected. During free time, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, motorcycle adventures, playing golf and travelling.
Director of Research and Services
Johanna Mäkelä
Johanna is FINBB's Director of Research and Services. Tasks include managing research projects and developing Fingenious® research services and service processes. Johanna has a PhD in biomedicine and did her post-doc research in computational medicine and bioinformatics. Johanna has a solid experience in biobanking, as before joining FINBB, Johanna served as the Director of Finnish Clinical Biobank for Tampere and as the Area Manager for Tampere University Hospital (Tays) Research Services. In her free time, Johanna is a Leader of Cub Scouts and Guides and is learning orienteering.
Fingenious® Manager
Meri Lähteenmäki
Meri works as FINBB’s Fingenious® Manager as of March 2024. Her role includes management of Fingenious® brand and the customer process, development of Fingenious® services, and corporate customer service.
Meri holds a MSc in biology (with specialization in neuroscience) and MSc in economics and business administration (with specialization in marketing). Before joining FINBB, her path has led from basic research to pharma industry where she gained experience in different roles related to sales and marketing, data and analytics as well as international projects.
Meri spends her spare time with her family, hiking in nature, and doing graphic arts.
Project Manager
Piia Mikkonen
Piia works as Project Manager at FINBB and is responsible for research project coordination and customer service.
She holds a Master’s degree in Drug Development and Therapeutics from the University of Turku and has solid experience in various preclinical cancer research projects. Piia has also gained valuable corporate experience in a major Finnish company, leading R&D projects and overseeing the comprehensive operations of a cell culture laboratory.
In her free time, Piia enjoys spending time in nature with her dog, whether exploring forest trails or walking along the seashore. She values time spent with family and friends and admits to having a passion for knitting, which is her ultimate way to relax.
Senior Advisor
Marco Hautalahti
Marco is FINBB's Senior Advisor starting from January 2025. Marco has extensive experience of the Finnish biobank network as he worked as FINBB’s long-term CEO from June 2018 until December 2024 and as a member of the European biobank network BBMRI-ERIC Management Group 2020-2024.
Marco (MSc in biology, executive MBA) has over 23 years of experience in various roles at international biopharmaceutical and healthcare industries: from R&D and commercial operations to over 10 years in national and regional Managing Director and Regional & European commercial leadership roles. Currently he is serving Bonalive Ltd as CEO to drive its continued global expansion and growth.
In his free time Marco enjoys Finnish-Norwegian family life and cottaging, reading, boating, going to the gym and different kinds of racket sports.
Senior Advisor
Pekka Simula
Pekka works as FINBB's Senior Advisor building collaboration with the operators in the field. By training Pekka is a physicist (MSc in engineering), who enjoys a peaceful family life and enjoys his free time in nature and on jogging trails.
Senior Advisor
Timo Veromaa
Timo (MD, PhD, executive MBA) is currently a Professor of Practice in Drug Development at the University of Turku and Chairman of Herantis Pharma Plc. Timo was formerly Executive Chairman of Domainex Ltd (Cambridge, UK), and President and CEO of Biotie Therapies Corp., from 2005 until its acquisition by Acorda Therapeutics in 2016. In addition, he has been Chairman of Finnish Bioindustries (FIB) in 2012-2018. During the beginning of his career, he was Medical Director of Schering AG in Finland, Program Director of Collagen Corp. (CA, USA) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.
Senior Scientific Advisor
Olli Carpen
Olli Carpen is professor of pathology at the University of Helsinki and scientific director at Helsinki Biobank since 2015. He studied medicine at the University of Helsinki and continued his studies at Harvard Medical School. After returning to Finland, he specialised in pathology. Between 2004–2015 he served as a professor of pathology and biobank research at the University of Turku.
Carpen has been elementary in creating the Finnish biobank network and providing expertise within the international biobanking community as a delegate of the Assembly of Members and member of the Steering Committee of BBMRI-ERIC. He is passionate about implementing biobanking into health care and personalised medicine research. His additional research interest is cancer, especially understanding mechanisms of chemoresistance, combining digital pathology and auxiliary techniques for improved diagnostics and discovering prognostic and predictive biomarkers.
Senior Scientific Advisor
Riitta Lahesmaa
Riitta Lahesmaa (M.D., Ph.D.) is Professor in Systems Immunology at University of Turku and the Director of Turku Bioscience Centre, Turku, Finland (https://bioscience.fi/). After her postdoc at Stanford University Medical Center, she was a Principal Scientist at Roche Bioscience in Palo Alto, California. She has been Academy Professor of the Academy of Finland in 2016–2020, vice director of The Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Systems Immunology and Physiology, and a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University and UCSF. She chairs the Board of the Finnish Society of Immunology and is a member of the board of Scandinavian Society of Immunology. She is an elected member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters since 2012.
Her research aims at understanding the molecular basis of immune regulation and pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and other human immune mediated diseases to enable their early detection and modulation. Her studies have resulted in the identification of novel molecular mechanisms and new regulators of T cell functions. She has published over 200 original papers and reviews and has several issued patents and patent applications.
In her free time, she enjoys jogging and winter swimming in Turku archipelago.
Web site: https://bioscience.fi/research/molecular-systems-immunology/profile/
Senior Scientific Advisor
Markus Perola
Research Professor
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Markus (MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor in Quantitative Genetics, Professional Degree in Leadership) is a Medical Specialist in Healthcare and currently Research Professor at Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). He is also the Scientific Director of THL Biobank and Deputy Director of CAMM (Research Program for Clinical and Molecular Metabolism) research program at University of Helsinki. In addition, Markus serves as an expert and is a member of various scientific forums, such as the Research Ethics Committee of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District. His leisure time activities consist of cottaging, forestry work, the study of wines, fiction and non-fiction literature, exercising in everyday life and going to the gym.
Senior Scientific Advisor
Marjukka Pollari
Marjukka Pollari is an MD and PhD, specialising in oncology with a primary interest in lymphomas. She works at the Oncology Department and Clinical Cancer Medication Research Unit at Tampere University Hospital, Tays Cancer Center. She has a position as a post-doctoral fellow at the Lymphoma Biology and Survival research group at the University of Helsinki.
Her academic research projects focus on aggressive extranodal lymphomas, especially testicular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and primary central nervous system lymphoma, and she is the chair of the Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma working group of the Nordic Lymphoma Group. She is also a member of the Finnish Lymphoma Group and has been the chair and vice-chair of the group.
Senior Scientific Advisor
Kimmo Porkka
Kimmo Porkka is a professor of personalized cancer therapy at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Chief physician at the Department of Hematology, Helsinki University Hospital’s Comprehensive Cancer Center in Finland.
His research experience includes clinical epidemiology, clinical cancer research and trials, and basic and applied cancer research on characterization of leukemia-specific therapies.
His current research interests focus on individualized therapy of relapsed leukemia and on applying novel computational tools for integration and harmonization of deep disease profiling and clinical datasets.
He has more than 150 original publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
Senior Scientific Advisor
Mikko Seppänen
Mikko Seppänen is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Chief Physician at HUS Helsinki University Hospital’s Rare Diseases Center, and Head Physician of HUS Helsinki University Hospital’s Children and Adolescents research. In addition, he is a researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Clinicum Unit and the Translational Immunology Research Program (TRIMM). Mikko has professional experience in registry, translational, and biobank research of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Immunology, and Hereditary Immune Disorders. Mikko is the current Chair of the Doctoral Committee of the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Medicine, so he is familiar with the full spectrum of the university's biomedical research.
As a Principal Investigator in a national research project (FINPIDD), Mikko is currently focused on the characterisation of hereditary immune disorders that are novel and clinically different from those previously described and on translational, registry, and biobank research of hereditary immune disorders using, e.g., PacBio long-read sequencing. As a Principal Investigator at HUS, he is investigating the use of artificial intelligence for the accelerated diagnosis of rare diseases based on the structure and textual data of electronic medical records and harmonised data.
Mikko has more than 140 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. He is an Inaugural Fellow of the Clinical Immunology Society (USA) and a member of the expert panels of numerous international specialist organisations such as the International Union of Immunological Societies Inborn Errors of Immunity Expert Committee and the Executive Committee of the Immunology Clinical Domain Working Group (CDWG) for Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen).
Senior Scientific Advisor
Pentti Tienari
Chief Neurologist, Professor of Neuroimmunology
Helsinki University Hospital, Neurocenter and University of Helsinki, Clinicum and Translational Immunology Research Program
Pentti (MD, PhD) is a physician scientist, who established his research group already when starting his residency in neurology. He divides his time 50:50 between clinical work and research and teaching. His research topics include neuroimmunological and neurodegenerative disease such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s spectrum diseases and motor neuron disease ALS. The first patient sample in Helsinki Biobank was taken from Pentti’s patient in 2015. As a member of the medical faculty’s thesis committee since 2007 (chair 2009–22), he has a special viewpoint to research activities at the Meilahti campus.
Minna Ruddock (Männikkö)
Director, Arctic Biobank
Minna has been the Research Director of The Infrastructure for Population Studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Oulu since 2015 and the Director of Arctic Biobank since 2020. As a post-docoral researcher, she worked at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. During her long career as a researcher, she has acquired substantial expertise in both molecular genetics of rare hereditary diseases and epidemiological research enabled by population-based cohorts. Minna likes to spend her free time with dogs, reading books and exercising.
Lila Kallio
Director, Auria Biobank
Lila Kallio (PhD) is the director of Auria Biobank. Lila’s academic background is in molecular cancer research. She has gained several years of experience in, e.g., preclinical R&D, business development tasks, and RWD studies. Lila likes to spend her free time with her family, out in nature with her dog, and exercising.
Raisa Serpi
Director, Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland
Raisa has been the Director of Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland since November 2019. Raisa has a strong background in biomedical research, e.g. in cardiometabolic diseases and the hypoxia response. Raisa is a biologist (physiology, genetics and disease modeling) by training, she has a PhD and is an Adjunct Professor. In her free time, she runs, does yoga and gymnastics exercises.
Eero Punkka
Director, Helsinki Biobank
Eero Punkka (PhD) is currently the Director of Helsinki Biobank. Professionally, he has worked in leadership roles of R&D and business development both on the public and private side. He has 20 years of experience in industry ranging from sensor technology to wellness, health and medical products and services. He has a research scientist (physics) background from Helsinki University of Technology, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His passion lies in the digitalization of healthcare and the utilization of health data for the benefit of patients and health professionals. His free time activities include music, sports and cottaging.
Arto Mannermaa
Biobank Director, Biobank of Eastern Finland
Professor, University of Eastern Finland
Professor Arto Mannermaa has 30 years of experience in the research field of molecular pathology of cancer and the components of breast cancer risk. He is head of the Multidisciplinary Cancer Research Community at UEF and director of the Biobank of Eastern Finland.
Mannermaa has expertise in cancer genomics and methodologies to study tumor-specific circulating molecules. He has also implemented deep machine learning and Big Data analysis to reveal the interaction of features affecting cancer risk and outcome. Mannermaa has over 300 peer-reviewed publications with over 16,000 citations.
While out of office, Mannermaa enjoys outdoor activities, such as sailing and trekking.
Tiina Jokela
Director, Central Finland Biobank
Tiina Jokela (Doctor of Philosophy) is the director of Central Finland Biobank and director of research in the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at the University of Jyväskylä. She has a strong background in cancer research, and long-term experience in doing cancer research also in the United States of America. In her free time Tiina enjoys outdoor activities with her family and dogs.
Sanna Siltanen
Director, Clinical Biobank of Tampere
Sanna has started as the director of the Tampere biobank in October 2021. Sanna is therefore responsible for managing and developing the biobank's operations, in cooperation with the team and the entire expert staff of TAYS research services.
Sanna has a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and a PhD in cancer genetics from the University of Tampere in 2013. She previously worked in a health technology company as a product manager, responsible for life science / molecular biology expert solutions. The main focus in the recent years was strongly on NGS sequencing. Sanna also has international experience through the years of supplier / manufacturer cooperation. Sanna is outgoing, active and customer-oriented. Her leisure time is spent with her family, outside in the nature or taking care of the garden or the summer cottage.
Tiina Wahlfors
Director, THL Biobank
Tiina is the director of the THL Biobank. Tiina got her introduction into the biobanking as a supervising authority in Valvira, where she was working when the Biobanking Act came into force 2013 and was thus involved in the creation of the first biobanks in Finland. Tiina took her first serious actions in biobanking while working at the Blood Service, where Tiina was setting up Blood Service Biobank and involved in the operations of the Hematological Biobank. Tiina has her primary education as a biologist (genetics), she has a Ph.D. in molecular biotechnology and is an adjunct professor in cancer genetics. As an eternal student, she has studied also fundaments in administrative sciences, sociology, and law. Other hobbies include reading, handicrafts and various physical activities. With her dog, Tiina is dedicated to search-and-rescue dog activities.