Dr Merja Joensuu
Researcher biography
I received my PhD from The University of Helsinki (UH), Finland, in 2014 where I studied molecular mechanisms of endoplasmic reticulum morphogenesis and dynamics in the laboratory of Adjunct Professor Eija Jokitalo at the Institute of Biotechnology (IB) using advanced imaging techniques. After graduation, I did a short postdoctoral training in the Nuclear Actin Lab (IB/UH) lead by Dr Maria Vartianen and, in 2015, I relocated to The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane, Australia. During my postdoctoral training at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at UQ, and changed my research field from basic cell biology to neuroscience and super-resolution imaging. I was awarded a 3-year Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016) and an ARC DECRA Award (2019) to study the role of a lipid modifying enzyme on neuronal function. In 2022, I became a UQ Amplify Fellow and Group Leader in a joint Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and QBI position at UQ. My lab aims to understand the role of proteins and lipids in neuronal function and dysfunction, as well as mechanisms of neuroparalysis and viral infections.