Kirsi Rilla's Biography

Kirsi Rilla, Group Leader, Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland

Dr Kirsi Rilla received her M.Sc. degree in cell biology from the University of Jyväskylä (1998). Her Ph.D. project in the University of Eastern Finland focused on intracellular trafficking of hyaluronan synthases and regulation of their activity (2006). The thesis work led to the discovery of hyaluronan-dependent filopodia that act as hyaluronan factories. Especially intriguing is her recent finding that those filopodia act as platforms for extracellular vesicle shedding.

Dr Rilla received Finnish Academy Researcher Fellowship (2014-2019) and the current research interest in her lab in the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Eastern Finland is cancer cell biology and relationship of hyaluronan with the biogenesis of extracellular vesicles. Dr Rilla is an expert in modern cell biological imaging methods, like confocal microscopy.