Olli Silvennoinen - Biography#

Olli Silvennoinen is Director of Biocenter Finland, a national life science infrastructure organization. He has served in academic leadership positions first as Director of Institute of Medical Technology in Tampere, and then Director of Institute of Biotechnology and Helsinki Institute of Life Science at University of Helsinki and as professor in Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology and Immunology at Tampere University. He received MD and PhD degrees at University of Helsinki and clinical microbiology specialization at University of Tampere. During his postdoc Prof. Silvennoinen was centrally involved in original characterization of the JAK-STAT pathway and his laboratory has continued to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of JAK kinases. These studies led to characterization of the key regulatory function the pseudokinase domain in both physiological and pathogenic JAK signaling, and demonstration of a novel target site for JAK inhibitors. He has also been visiting professor at UCSF hub for innovation and entrepreneurship Quantitative Biosciences 3 (QB3) and at Yale University and Tianjin Medical University. He has been active in developing valorization of research innovations in academic setting and in start-up companies.