Community Engagement Manager

• Oct 2022 - Present

Katerva’s mission is to find, validate, and accelerate disruptive sustainable innovations from around the world. The Katerva Awards have been named “the Nobel Prize for Sustainability” by Reuters. Currently, I am responsible for supporting nominees of the Katerva Awards and engaging with expert panelists throughout the award evaluation process. I also provide strategic suggestions to the team in order to improve communication, optimize workflow and boost productivity. Katerva’s mission is to find, validate, and accelerate disruptive sustainable innovations from around the world. The Katerva Awards have been named “the Nobel Prize for Sustainability” by Reuters. Currently, I am responsible for supporting nominees of the Katerva Awards and engaging with expert panelists throughout the award evaluation process. I also provide strategic suggestions to the team in order to improve communication, optimize workflow and boost productivity.

Co-Founder

• Jul 2021 - Present

Together with David Issom, we are creating a platform cooperative named Heka.coop. Our mission and our passion are to help people like us live to their full potential. We are working with people living with neglected or rare disorders, healthcare providers, citizens, patient organizations as well as caregivers, to co-design digital tools that can help them achieve better self-care. Our dream is to transform healthcare for patients with neglected diseases around the world and achieve health equity for all, starting with genetic blood diseases. Why? Because this group of diseases is among the most neglected ones. Following our vision, we have, together with various partners, built a pilot project "coach drepano" for people with sickle cell disease can get coaching and mentoring from expert-patients, and we build a mobile application, called Trevor, which is a conversational artificial intelligence with many features like remote therapeutic education or tele-consultation, but the main one is the ability of Trevor to collect and analyze the self-care practices and habits from patients, and informs about the best practices among the community of patients. Ultimately, we would like to expand the platform to other rare diseases and empower more neglected patients.

Post editor and project coordinator

• Jun 2021 - Jun 2022

• Edited machine-translated patent-related documents and iteratively improved the machine translation system. • Helped manager identify opportunities for internal and external collaborations and monitored collaboration within the Division. • Optimized team workflow using Agile approach and enhanced team productivity. • Edited machine-translated patent-related documents and iteratively improved the machine translation system. • Helped manager identify opportunities for internal and external collaborations and monitored collaboration within the Division. • Optimized team workflow using Agile approach and enhanced team productivity.

Humanitarian MBA Candidate (Professional Degree)

• Jul 2021 - Oct 2021

The Roxbourg Institute of Social Entrepreneurship works with the toughest people on the planet who are addressing social, gender, or environmental inequity with real projects in established organizations or social ventures. Together with David Issom, our project HEKA.coop was honored as the Winner of Roxbourg Gold Medal. The Roxbourg Institute of Social Entrepreneurship works with the toughest people on the planet who are addressing social, gender, or environmental inequity with real projects in established organizations or social ventures. Together with David Issom, our project HEKA.coop was honored as the Winner of Roxbourg Gold Medal.

Scientific Editor

• Jan 2020 - Jun 2021

CACTUS is a global scientific communications company that aims to make research available to the community around the world and accelerate research impact. • Edit scientific manuscripts, grant applications, and clinical trial documents. Deliver results under strict deadlines according to clients' needs. • Correct grammatical errors, give suggestions, and restructure the manuscript for better readability for the science community. • Fields include biochemistry, molecular biology, food sciences, and medicine. • Achievement within 3 months: (External) Client feedback: 100% outstanding. (Internal) Reviewer feedback: Average of 3.5 out of 4.

Project Manager | Head of Research

• Feb 2017 - Oct 2018

Katerva’s mission is to find, validate, and accelerate disruptive sustainable innovations from around the world.• Established training materials and protocols in the organization, to ensure a smooth workflow within and between each team of the research group.• Managed internal database with advanced Excel knowledge and coordinated work between researchers.• Reviewed candidate innovation profiles written by other researchers.• Coordinated 2018 Katerva Summer Internship Program. Within 3 months, we reached ~50% of the annual goal for the Katerva Award in terms of the total output of candidate innovation profiles.• Provided remote training, supervision, and coordination of the multi-national research team, which consisted of 10+ researchers and 20+ interns across the globe. • Represented Katerva in 4 conferences, including World Circular Economy Forum 2017 (Helsinki, Finland) and built relationships with tech transfer offices and incubators in the Baltic Region.

Senior Researcher

• Oct 2016 - Feb 2017

• Scouted for sustainable disruptive innovations worldwide.• Served as the primary contact for the annual Katerva Awards for global sustainability. • Assisted the nominees and provided them with a smooth process in each step of the Katerva Awards.• Expanded Katerva's network and visibility in France, Asia, and South America by (1) engaging start-ups with Katerva Awards and (2) building contacts with incubators and accelerators from these regions.

Researcher

• Aug 2015 - Sep 2016

Project Manager | Research Engineer | Research Scientist

• Apr 2014 - Oct 2016

The IBS is a research center in the field of integrated structural biology, focusing on the structure and dynamics of proteins and other biological macromolecules to understand how they function at the atomic level and in a cellular environment. I worked in the NMR group of Dr. Paul Schanda. • Conducted 3 research projects and optimized protocols. Studied functional dynamics and interactions of various proteins & visualization of protein assemblies in action. • Techniques used: cyoEM, solution- and solid-state NMR spectroscopy, MS, SEC-MALLS, amino acid hydrolysis, residue-specific isotope labeling, and paramagnetic NMR. • Collaborated with 6 research groups, resulting in 2 publications and 8 conference presentations.

Project Manager | PhD Research Associate | Research Scientist

• Jan 2009 - Dec 2013

I completed my PhD research in the group of Protein Chemistry (now Macromolecular Biochemistry), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marcellus Ubbink (expert in protein paramagnetic NMR) and Dr. Gregg Siegal (expert in fragment-based drug discovery). • Conducted 2 research projects and collaborated with 5 research groups. • Developed a new drug screening technique, resulting in 2 publications, 7 conference presentations, and part of a large EU research grant. • Taught 3 semesters of undergraduate biochemistry lab courses (first-and second-year students) and supervised 2 thrid-year student research projects in biochemistry. My lab tasks included: • Wet lab work: cloning, mutagenesis, protein expression and purification. • NMR measurements: characterize interactions and dynamics of protein-small molecule and protein-peptide complexes using conventional 1D, 2D and 3D NMR. • Computation: Data analysis and NMR-based structural calculations using various NMR-related software.

Research Associate

• Sep 2007 - Jun 2008

Master project internship in the Protein Chemistry Group at Leiden University / ZoBio BV. Supervisors: Dr. Eiso AB and Dr. Gregg Siegal. • Prepared fragment mixes and protein samples for NMR screening experiments. • Detected small-molecule hits binding to the protein targets using 1D NMR (STD, waterLOGSY, and Target-Immobilized NMR screening (TINS)). Validated ligand binding using 2D HSQC NMR. Protein resonance assignments using 3D NMR. • Analyzed NMR data, including (1) mapping chemical shift changes on protein surfaces, (2) Kd determination, (3) main binding site identification and (4) identifying ligands that bind at different sites of the protein based on the results of competition binding screening.

Research Associate

• Sep 2006 - Jun 2007

Master project internship in the Bioorganic Synthesis Group at Leiden University. Supervisor: Victoria Bock • Synthesized kojibiose-substituted glycerol phosphate subunit of teichoic acid as part of a synthetic vaccine. • Purified compounds using column chromatography. • Assessed compound identity and purity using NMR, IR, and UV-Vis. • Presented the results in 2007 PAC symposium, Utrecht. Master project internship in the Bioorganic Synthesis Group at Leiden University. Supervisor: Victoria Bock • Synthesized kojibiose-substituted glycerol phosphate subunit of teichoic acid as part of a synthetic vaccine. • Purified compounds using column chromatography. • Assessed compound identity and purity using NMR, IR, and UV-Vis. • Presented the results in 2007 PAC symposium, Utrecht.