Jyrki Heino

Jyrki Heino defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Turku, Finland. One year later, he joined Professor Joan Massagué’s group in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Worcester, MA, and subsequently moved with the group to the Cell Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY. After returning to Finland, Jyrki Heino established his own research group. He is currently Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the University of Turku.

Heino served for several years as Director of the Department of Life Technologies, University of Turku (2012–2024) and as Scientific Director of the BioCity Turku biocenter (2004–2021). Over the past decades, he and his research group have published numerous novel findings on the biology, structure, evolution, and biomedical roles of the extracellular matrix and cell-adhesion receptors. Most recently, the group’s work has focused on the cellular interactions and the matrisome of the tumor stroma.

Jyrki Heino is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Academia Europaea.