Rudbeck seminar - Kaisa Irene Lehti

https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/kaisa.lehti

Kaisa Lehti is professor of cell and molecular biology at the Norwegian university of Science and Technology and PI in Karolinska Institutet with over 25 years of experience in extracellular matrix remodeling, tumor microenvironment, and cancer-stroma crosstalk signaling with focus on cell invasion, metastasis and drug resistance. She is a leader of Cancer-Stroma Crosstalk research group with ~10 members and competitive funding from Novo Nordisk Foundation, Swedish Cancer Society and Norwegian Cancer Society. As an independent group leader since 2010, she has supervised altogether >40 PhD, MD, MSc, and BSc students as well as postdocs, many of whom continue in competitive academic positions. The Lehti group’s results have identified crosstalk mechanisms of membrane-anchored proteases, cytoskeleton, and signaling receptors governing cancer and stroma cell phenotypes in 3D microenvironments. In cutting-edge technology development, the group has contributed to ex vivo cancer and stroma cell isolation, 3D cell (co-)culture, and drug screening, along with experimental tissue explant, organoid, and in vivo tumor models. This coupled with current developments on predictive mathematical models and AI-based digital image analysis, provides her group with opportunities for molecular mechanistic research, biomarker discovery, and therapy development in settings highly relevant to the human disease.

See all publications in ‪Kaisa Lehti - ‪Google Scholar and selected examples below.

Gonzalez-Molina J, Nabili P, Marciano D, Abdelnabi S, Gultekin O, Rasul M, Zhang Y, Nadal C, Chrysanthou A, Alkasalias T, Salehi S, Balkwill FR, Lehti K and Gautrot J. The mechanical anisotropy of adipose tissues regulates ovarian cancer invasion. bioRxiv 2024

Gonzalez-Molina J*, Kirchhof KM, Rathod B, Moyano-Galceran L, Calvo Noriega M, Kokaraki G, Bjørkøy A, Ehnman M, Carlson JW and Lehti K. Mechanical Confinement and DDR1 Signaling Synergize to Regulate Collagen-Induced Apoptosis in Rhabdomyosarcoma Cells. Advanced Science, 9 (28) 2022.

Pietilä EA, Gonzalez-Molina J, Moyano-Galceran L, Jamalzadeh S, Zhang K, Lehtinen L, Turunen SP, Martins T, Gultekin O, Lamminen T, Kaipio K, Joneborg U, Hynninen J, Hietanen S, Grénman S, Lehtonen R, Hautaniemi S, Carpén O, Carlson JW and Lehti K. Co-evolution of matrisome and adaptive adhesion dynamics drives ovarian cancer chemoresistance. Nature Communications. 12 (1): 1-19, 2021.

Moyano-Galceran L, Pietilä E*, Turunen SP*, Corvigno S, Hjerpe E, Bulanova D, Joneborg U, Alkasalias T, Miki Y, Yashiro M, Chernenko A, Jukonen J, Sigh M, Dahlstrand H, Carlson JW and Lehti K. Adaptive RSK-EphA2-GPRC5A signaling switch triggers chemotherapy resistance in ovarian cancer. EMBO Molecular Medicine. 12(4):e11177, 2020.

Turunen SP, von Nandelstadh P, Öhman T, Gucciardo E, Seashore-Ludlow B, Martins B, Rantanen V, Li H, Höpfner K, Östling P, Varjosalo M, and Lehti K. FGFR4 phosphorylates MST1 to confer breast cancer cells resistance to MST1/2-dependent apoptosis. Cell Death & Differentiation. 26(12):2577-2593, 2019.

Tatti O, Gucciardo E, Pekkonen P, Holopainen T, Louhimo R, Repo P, Lohi J, Maliniemi P, Rantanen V, Hautaniemi S, Alitalo K, Ranki A, Ojala P, Keski-Oja J and Lehti K. MMP16 Mediates a Proteolytic Switch to Promote Cell-Cell Adhesion, Collagen Alignment, and Lymphatic Invasion in Melanoma. Cancer Research 75(10):2083-94, 2015.