Anniina Färkkilä, MD PhD, is a tenure-track Associate Professor at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Färkkilä works as a specialist in gynecologic oncology at the Helsinki University Hospital (HUH), conducting multiple clinical trials at the HUH Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Färkkilä coordinates the prospective Oncosys-Ova trial, and leads the Ovarian cancer project in the iCAN Digital Precision Medicine Flagship. She is a board member of the Nordic Society of Gynecologic Oncology (NSGO), and the National Molecular Tumor Board of FINPROVE trial. In 2018 she was awarded the Seth Wichmann Award by the Finnish Gynecologic Society, and the Eero Saksela Award by the Finnish Cancer Institute in 2022. She was the recipient of an ERC Starting grant in 2022. Currently, her laboratory focuses on understanding the complexity and cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment using spatial profiling, advanced bioinformatics, and functional models in ovarian cancer.

Dr Färkkilä’s work has been seminal for understanding and overcoming resistance to Poly-ADP Ribose Polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, and developing genetic biomarkers for combination therapies for ovarian cancer Nature communications 2022, NPJ Precis Oncol. Importantly, her work on single-cell spatial proteomics has revealed critical insights into how genetic mechanisms define responses to combination immunotherapies (Cancer Cell, in press, 2024). Dr Färkkilä is thus a pioneer in spatial proteomics, using single-cell analyses of the tumor microenvironment as a tool for precision medicine. Importantly, a genomic biomarker ovaHRDscar has already been clinically implemented in Finland demonstrating her capabilities to conduct groundbreaking research that has direct clinical significance for cancer patients.