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Dr. Outi Kontkanen
CEO
Dr. Outi Kontkanen, the CEO of Admescope organization and a management team member of Symeres, has an extensive global experience in discovery and early preclinical CRO business. Her passion is to harness science for development of effective therapies and for improvement of quality of life. She has served in various managerial and business development roles at Charles River Laboratories and believes in the power of global collaborations. Her scientific background lies in molecular pharmacology where she holds a PhD degree and has contributed to various publications in neuropharmacology and related sciences.
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Dr. Elisa Ollikainen
Head of In Vitro Metabolism and Biotransformations
Dr. Elisa Ollikainen joined Admescope in 2022 coming in with over a decade of experience in the field of drug metabolism research and analytical chemistry. Elisa holds a PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry and has contributed to several scientific publications and book chapters. Throughout her career, she has led and contributed to a wide range of projects, from the miniaturization of analytical techniques to enzyme inhibition and drug metabolism studies from environmental perspective.
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Dr. Sanna-Mari Aatsinki
Head of Drug-Drug Interactions and in vitro Toxicology
Dr. Sanna-Mari Aatsinki has extensive research experience related to hepatic energy metabolism, gene regulation, mitochondrial function and toxicity having strong scientific background in various cell-based assays and mRNA analysis techniques. Sanna-Mari joined Admescope in 2011 and she is heading the metabolism and transporter mediated drug-drug interactions, in vitro toxicology and permeability research services team.
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Dr. Janne Mannila
Head of in vivo Pharmacokinetics
Dr. Janne Mannila has a pharmaceutical background with over 15 years of experience working in CROs in Finland and Australia, in various senior roles. He has extensive hands-on experience in a number of challenging surgical techniques, as well as knowledge in the field of in vivo and in situ pharmacokinetics. Janne established the Admescope in vivo laboratory upon joining the company in 2015. Janne has contributed to >20 peer reviewed research papers, book chapters and international patents.
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Valtteri Rinne
Head of Bioanalytics
Valtteri Rinne has been involved in early phase drug discovery since 2005. His savoir-faire ranges from synthetic rational drug design to preclinical bioanalysis as a result from working in prominent academic research groups across Europe and overseas. Valtteri joined Admescope in 2013 after working several years as a certified GLP principal investigator in a preclinical CRO. In addition to bioanalytics, his core responsibilities also include binding experiments and physicochemical studies.
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Dr. Ilonka Meerts
Head of early ADME
Dr. Ilonka Meerts has been working in the field of ADME and toxicology, since receiving her PhD in toxicology at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands in 2001. Previously, Ilonka worked at different CROs in the roles of Study Director Genetic Toxicology and in vitro ADME, Team lead Toxicology, and Head of in vitro ADME and gained extensive experience in implementation, optimization, and interpretation of in vitro ADME and Tox studies. Ilonka joined Symeres in 2019 where she established the early ADME team, focusing on high throughput assays and delivering fast and reliable early ADME data as part of our integrated drug discovery programs as well as standalone services.
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Dr. Miia Kovalainen
Head of Business Development
Dr. Miia Kovalainen is has over ten years of experience in academic pharmaceutical research in Finland and Australia, with special focus on physiology and pharmacology of energy metabolism and drug delivery systems for compounds with poor ADME properties. She has contributed to >25 peer reviewed research and review articles. Miia heads the ADME-Tox business development and is also involved in the client services and sales of various services, with a focus on regulatory compliant in vitro drug-drug interaction packages.
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Maija Alakarjula
Business Development Scientist
Maija Alakarjula holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical technology, but has also studied Natural sciences. Maija has worked in pharmaceutical industry in product lifecycle management and quality assurance tasks before joining Admescope. In Admescope’s business development team, Maija is responsible for the client services and sales with a focus on in vivo DMPK, quantitative bioanalysis and physicochemistry & binding studies.
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Jouni Jukka
Business Development Scientist
Jouni Jukka holds a Master’s degree in Biopharmacy and during his studies he focused on metabolism based drug-drug interactions. In Admecope’s Business Development team Jouni is responsible for the client services and sales specializing in in vitro drug metabolism and biotransformation services. Before Admescope, Jouni worked in retail pharmacy industry and hospitals.
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Katja Pasternack
Business Development Scientist
Katja Pasternack holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Technology. She has almost 20 years of experience as a research scientist in pharmaceutical industry in different stages of research and development projects from idea evaluation to IND enabling studies. She has worked mainly in the ADME field – both in vitro and in vivo – including in vitro toxicology. Katja is responsible for the client services and sales of all Admescope’s services with a focus on drug-drug interactions, transporters and permeability and in vitro toxicology.
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Leah Haydock
Director, Business Development North America
Leah Haydock has a background in pharmacology and has worked in the medical device industry for several years in multiple positions from R&D and product development to sales and marketing. Leah is responsible for North American business development for Admescope and works out of our Boston, MA office.
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Dr. Laszlo Szilagyi
Director, Business Development
Dr. Laszlo Szilagyi holds a PhD in analytical chemistry, focusing on macromolecule characterization with LC-MS/MS. Laszlo spent several years in the pharma in vitro preclinical CRO businesses in different sales and BD head roles in the EU and APAC region. He has experience in the IVD field, and was involved in the development of the first in class IVD tool for efficacy prediction of infliximab. Laszlo is supporting the European and APAC sales and BD process of Admescope, and integrated services within the Symeres organization.
Specialized and Skilled Team
At Admescope, we take immense pride in our unwavering dedication to advancing drug discovery and development through state-of-the-art ADME-Tox / In vivo DMPK research. Beyond offering a comprehensive portfolio, readily available for our customers, we continuously improve our research services by investing in internal R&D initiatives to enhance our technologies and ways of working. Our success is not solely attributed to technology and infrastructure; rather, it is deeply embedded in the exceptional talents of our devoted team.
Our team comprises seasoned scientists and researchers who have contributed to over 300 scientific publications. They stand at the forefront of science, utilizing their collective expertise to offer comprehensive insights into the field of ADME-Tox. With decades of CRO experience, our team has played a pivotal role in diverse projects, gaining deep understanding of the varied needs of our customers.
With a wealth of experience, our experts adeptly navigate the complexities of ADME-Tox/In vivo DMPK. This ensures that each project benefits from an approach tailored to its specific purpose. This commitment to excellence sets us apart, making Admescope the preferred choice for those seeking the best fitted solutions in drug discovery and development.