Rate My Professor Sesilja Aranko

Sesilja Aranko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems at Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering, where she leads the Cellular Engineering research group. Her work centers on cellular engineering, developing methods to expand post-translational protein modifications via biomolecular click-reactions and enzymatic processes including phosphorylations, hydroxylations, and glycosylations. These approaches enable applications in protein and peptide purification, functionalization, cell engineering, and the modification of structural proteins such as silk- and collagen-like proteins to create sustainable, high-performance biomaterials. Ongoing projects under her principal investigatorship include Pro2Fun, which produces post-translationally modified structural proteins in bacteria for functional biomaterials; MicroMilk, focusing on microbial production of phosphorylated milk proteins; and CrossSilk, developing durable silk-cellulose composites mimicking natural crosslinking for enhanced mechanical properties in wet and dry conditions.

Aranko received her doctoral degree in Engineering and Technology from the University of Helsinki on 9 December 2014. Post-doctorate, she served as a researcher at the University of Helsinki and Aalto University, a Visiting Researcher at EMBL Hamburg, and Senior Scientist at Aalto University prior to her current four-year fixed-term Assistant Professor appointment in Cellular Engineering effective 1 September 2024. She was awarded the highly competitive Emerging Investigator 2023 Grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, valued at 10 million DKK (approximately 1.34 million EUR), to study post-translational modifications' roles in protein-based material assembly and engineer novel biomaterials from modified silks and collagens produced in bacteria. Earlier, she received Academy of Finland funding for engineering orthogonal protein-peptide pairs in recombinant spider silk production. Her influential publications include 'Nature's recipe for splitting inteins' (Protein Engineering, Design & Selection, 2014; 146 citations), 'Biomimetic composites with enhanced toughening using silk-inspired triblock proteins and aligned nanocellulose reinforcements' (Science Advances, 2019; 130 citations), 'Phase transitions as intermediate steps in the formation of molecularly engineered protein fibers' (Communications Biology, 2018; 117 citations), 'Catcher/Tag Toolbox: Biomolecular Click-Reactions For Protein Engineering Beyond Genetics' (ChemBioChem, 2024), and 'Sustainable Spinning of Artificial Spider Silk Fibers with Excellent Toughness and Inherent Potential for Functionalization' (Advanced Functional Materials, 2025). Her research contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 7, and 12.