Specialized and Skilled Team

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.

Dr. Ari Tolonen

CSO & Head of in vitro Metabolism and Biotransformations

Dr. Ari Tolonen has received his PhD in analytical organic chemistry from University of Oulu in 2003 and has been working with ADME-research since that, most of the time in CRO business. In 2011 he launched Admescope and is currently heading the studies related to drug metabolism and biotransformations. He has contributed to >70 peer reviewed scientific papers, review articles & book chapters, mainly in the field of drug metabolism, drug-drug interactions, pharmacokinetics and related bioanalytics.

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.

Dr. Janne Mannila

Head of in vivo Pharmacokinetics

Dr. Janne Mannila has background in pharmaceutical sciences and over 10 years of experience working in CRO’s in Finland and Australia as a Senior Scientist. He has an extensive knowledge in the field of in vivo and in situ pharmacokinetics as well as preclinical formulation design. Janne established the Admescope in vivo laboratory upon joining Admescope in 2015. Janne has contributed to >15 peer reviewed research papers, book chapters and international patents.

Dr. Vesa Ruotsalainen

Head of Biologics

Dr. Vesa Ruotsalainen has worked over 15 years in diagnostic industry as a scientist and project manager. His expertise lies especially in the development and characterisation of recombinant proteins and antibodies. In addition, he has long experience in developing and validating immunoassays as well as nucleic acid amplification assays for in vitro diagnostic use. Vesa has contributed to >20 peer reviewed scientific papers and review articles.

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.

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 supports the sales process of Admescope’s drug-drug interaction, transporter and permeability and in vitro toxicology services.

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. Assisting the sales process of in vivo DMPK, quantitative bioanalysis and physicochemistry & binding studies fall under Maija´s responsibility.

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. At Admescope, Jouni works in the Business Development team and is responsible for the sales process of in vitro drug metabolism services. Before Admescope, Jouni worked in retail pharmacy industry and hospitals.

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.

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.