Johanna Ivaska
University of Turku
Host: Juliane Winkler
Programm
“Tumor-ECM crosstalk in cancer progression”
Tissue homeostasis relies on the spatial organization of distinct cell types and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), where integrin-mediated adhesion and actin cytoskeleton dynamics regulate cellular identity, migration, and invasion. Our previous work highlighted that normal stromal architecture can suppress breast cancer aggression and even reprogram malignant cells towards a more benign state. Expanding this concept, we investigated mechanobiological crosstalk in two distinct malignancies. In vocal fold cancer (VFC), we identified increased ECM deposition and tissue stiffening correlating with disease progression, receptor heterogeneity, and collective migration. Physiological
mechanical cues, such as stretching and vibration,attenuate nuclear β-catenin and YAP signaling, suggesting that VFC is a mechanically sensitive tumor. YAP-TEAD inhibition emerges as a potential therapeutic strategy. In mucinous colorectal carcinoma (MUC CRC), we uncover a collagen–α2β1-integrin–SorLA axis regulating tumor polarity. This pathway reinforces HER2/HER3 signaling and maintains apical-in polarity, with HER2-targeting antibodies reversing polarity and impeding metastasis. Together, our findings highlight diverse, tissue-specific mechanotransduction mechanisms that reshape tumor–stroma interactions and offer novel avenues for therapeutic intervention.
About the speaker
Professor Johanna Ivaska is an academic researcher at the University of Turku, Finland, focusing on novel cancer therapies through the study of cell adhesion, cell fate regulation, tissue homeostasis, and tumour–stroma interactions.
She obtained her PhD in 2000 at the University of Turku and completed EMBO- and Research Council of Finland-funded postdoctoral training at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 2003. She became Group Leader and Research Council of Finland Principal Investigator at the University of Turku in 2003 and was appointed Professor of Molecular Cell Biology in 2008 (tenured in 2015). She is currently a Finnish Cancer Institute Research Professor (K. Albin Johansson Professorship) and Director of the Research Council of Finland Centre of Excellence BarrierForce.
Professor Ivaska has published over 130 papers, including first or senior author publications in leading journals such as Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, Nature Reviews Cancer, Nature Materials, and Nature Cell Biology. Her work has identified key regulators of integrin activity and trafficking (including SHANK3, Rab21, and Swip-1) and revealed pathways controlling cancer invasion, metastasis, and drug resistance, including mechanisms in HER2-amplified breast cancer and vulnerabilities in KRAS-driven lung and pancreatic cancers. Her group has also contributed major advances in cancer mechanobiology, including the discovery of “negative durotaxis” in brain cancer cells.
She recently received an ERC Advanced Grant to study molecular mechanisms underlying cancer border-crossing and tissue defence failure.
Professor Ivaska is an elected member of EMBO (2015), the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2016), and Academia Europaea (2023), and has served as an EMBO Council member since 2023.