Moona Rahikainen: Plant Physiology First Author

Moona Rahikainen, co-first author of ACONITASE 3 is part of the ANAC017 transcription factor-dependent mitochondrial dysfunction response

Current Position: Post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of Asst. Prof. Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi at the University of Helsinki, Finland

Education: PhD and MSc in molecular plant biology (University of Turku, Finland)

Non-scientific Interests: Drawing, knitting and reading

Brief bio:

I found my way to plant science as a second-year biology student at the University of Turku when I started as a research trainee in Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi’s project investigating the cross-talk between plant defense and light acclimation. I got hooked on molecular plant biology and continued in the same laboratory for my MSc and PhD. In my PhD work, I studied the regulation of plant defense and stress acclimation, focusing on protein phosphatase 2A and its targets. After PhD I sought to broaden my skills and did a post-doc period in professor Baoru Yang’s laboratory at the University of Turku., where I investigated the possibilities of macroalgae cultivation in the Baltic Sea and the potential of local macroalgae species as food and feed. Currently, I continue the research on the regulatory mechanisms behind plant stress acclimation in Saijaliisa Kangasjärvi’s laboratory at the University of Helsinki, with an aim to translate the research findings from Arabidopsis to crop plants.