Rate My Professor Juha Partanen

Professor Juha Partanen is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Biosciences at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences. He leads the Developmental Neurogenetics research group, investigating the molecular mechanisms that generate neuronal diversity during embryonic brain development. His research focuses on intercellular signaling pathways and gene regulatory networks driving the differentiation of specific neuron types, including dopaminergic and GABAergic neurons in the midbrain and anterior hindbrain. These studies have implications for understanding psychiatric diseases, medical treatments, and responses to drugs of abuse. Partanen earned his PhD in 1993 from the University of Helsinki under Professor Kari Alitalo, characterizing novel growth factor receptors such as members of the fibroblast growth factor receptor family and Tie1, a regulator of blood vessel growth. From 1994 to 1998, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Janet Rossant's laboratory at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, using gene-modified mice to study growth factor signaling in embryonic vasculature and patterning. In 1998, he established his independent research group at the University of Helsinki.