Rate My Professor Anu Airaksinen

Anu Airaksinen is Professor at the Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, a position she began in January 2022. Her academic journey started with a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Kuopio in 1999, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry, specializing in Chemistry in Biosciences, from the University of Kuopio in 2003. Her PhD thesis, "New Tropane Analogues as Potential Brain Imaging Agents: Synthesis, Conformational Study and In Vitro/In Vivo Evaluation," established her foundation in radiotracer synthesis and evaluation. Post-PhD, she conducted postdoctoral research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Radionuclidencentrum from 2002 to 2004, at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Clinical Neuroscience in Stockholm from 2005 to 2006, and at the University of Helsinki's Department of Chemistry in 2007. At Helsinki, she advanced to Group Leader in Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry in 2008, earned Docent status in Radiochemistry in 2011, served as an Academy Research Fellow from 2010 to 2015, and was appointed Associate Professor (tenure-track) of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry in 2017.

Airaksinen's research centers on radiopharmaceutical chemistry, PET radiochemistry, pretargeted PET imaging, image-guided drug delivery, theranostics, and nanotheranostics. She develops novel PET radiotracers for brain research and nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery using short-lived positron emitters, with emphasis on organic radiosynthesis, production methods including microfluidics, radioligand optimization for structure, binding specificity, metabolism, and molar activity. Her group at Turku PET Centre advances these areas, including radiosynthesis of peptides and evaluation in vivo. Notable publications include "Fluorine-18 Radiolabeled Single-Chain Antibody Variable Fragment 1F4 Targets α1-Subunit Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Type A Receptors in Mice" (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2026), "Biological Evaluation of Molecular Spherical Nucleic Acids: Targeting Tumors via a Hybridization-Based Folate Decoration" (ACS Omega, 2025), "Rapid cleavage of 6-[18F]fluoronicotinic acid prosthetic group governs BT12 glioblastoma xenograft uptake" (EJNMMI Radiopharmacy and Chemistry, 2025), "Switching the Chemoselectivity in the Preparation of [18F]FNA-N-CooP" (Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2024), and "Development of an In Vitro Assay for Evaluation of Intracellular SPAAC Reactions Using Hoechst-DBCO" (Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, 2026). She has been honored with the GSK Young Investigator Award in 2006 and the JLCR Young Scientist Award in 2007. Airaksinen teaches courses such as Fundamentals of Radiochemistry, Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry, and Radiosynthetic Techniques at the University of Turku.