Pia Siljander

Dr. Pia Siljander (PhD, Adj. prof) works in the Faculty of Bio and Environmental Sciences in University of Helsinki (UH) as a senior lecturer. Her research in extracellular vesicles (EVs) started with platelet microparticles during her PhD, and was resumed after her post doc (University of Cambridge, U.K.). The current focus of her EV group is to identify novel EV inducers in platelets and cancer cells with the aim of characterizing their cargo changes for biomarker discovery and in EV-mediated communication. Dr. Siljander has been actively involved in the development of the EV field by participating in the founding of International Society of Extracellular vesicles, being on the editorial board of Journal of Extracellular Vesicles and by being the MC for Finland in the EU COST Action BM1202 Microvesicles and Exosomes in Health and Disease. She has actively promoted EV method development and standardization e.g.by being a co-chair of a Scientific Standardization Committee of Vascular Biology in the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. In 2016, jointly with Dr. Maija Puhka (Finnish Institute of Molecular Medicine /UH), Dr. Siljander founded the world’s first EV core facility in the Uh to help others to conduct EV-based research and to provide access to key technologies. Research in the EV core has generated scientific publications relating to improvement of EV isolation, measurements and standardization. Several innovation disclosures have also been made and are currently explored for commercialization.