PEOPLE

Dr. Kaartinen is an Associate professor at McGill University in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences and Faculty of Medicine (Division of Experimental Medicine) (Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology). She has an MSc degree in Organic Chemistry from University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, and a PhD-degree (1999) in Biochemistry from the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology in University of Kuopio, Finland (currently University of Eastern Finland). She completed her postdoctoral training in bone and extracellular matrix biology in the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry at McGill University, and joined McGill University as an Assistant Professor in 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. She has acted as Director of Biomedical Sciences in the Faculty of Dentistry and is interested in promoting critical thinking and academic integrity. Dr. Kaartinen has worked on transglutaminases, their substrates and roles in cellular differentiation for over 20 years and acted as the Chair of Gordon Research Conference on Transglutaminases in Human Disease Processes in 2018. She is a member of the Editorial Board for Cell Death and Disease

Other Kaartinen sites:

https://www.mcgill.ca/expmed/dr-mari-kaartinen

https://www.mcgill.ca/dent-biomedical/research-axes-and-researchers/mari-kaartinen

Sahar Ebrahimi Samani has a BSc-degree in Biology from ShahreKord University and a MSc-degree of Biochemistry from Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of Tehran, Iran. In her MSc project she worked on analyzing the toxic effects of berberine on bone marrow monocytes and gained experience in cellular and molecular biology assays related to culturing and analyzing mouse bone marrow cells and in working with animal research models. She is pursuing a PhD-degree in Experimental Medicine and studying the molecular mechanisms by which transglutaminases modulate osteoclastogenesis. In her work she uses chemical biology methods, proteomics, primary mouse monocyte and macrophage cultures and transgenic mouse models.

Fatemeh Soltani completed her Doctorate degree in Pharmacy (PharmD) at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Her first PhD study was about drug (gene) delivery vectors for cancers. During her PharmD and PhD, she obtained several skills in the fields of medicinal chemistry (synthesis and characterization of small molecules, peptides, and proteins), cell and molecular biology, nanomedicine, and toxicology. Now, she is pursuing her graduate studies, PhD, in Experimental Medicine and investigating the role of Factor XIII-A in adipose tissue in obesity. In her project, she uses different biological models; transgenic mice, cell cultures, and methods such as proteomics, co-culture systems, sc/sn RNA sequencing.

Mahdokht Mahmoodi has a BSc degree in Physiotherapy from the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science and an MSc degree in Biotechnology from the Shiraz University of Medical Science, Iran, where she worked on developing nanoparticles to facilitate gene delivery. After working on wound healing and regenerative medicine, she joined McGill University for a second MSC degree in Experimental Surgery and worked on bone tissue engineering project. She is now pursuing a PhD-degree in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences and studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms and effects of plasma fibronectin on bone mass and energy metabolism.

Elahe Mirzarazi Dahaghi has completed her BSc-degree in Genetics from ShahreKord University and a MSc-degree of Biochemistry from Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of Tehran, Iran. In her MSc project, she worked on signaling pathways involving in blood cancer. After graduation, she worked in pharmaceutical company and Health Science academic institute for 3 years. She is now pursuing her PhD-degree in Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her project involves understanding the role of cellular fibronectin in development of insulin resistance related to obesity.   

Hamed is enrolled as a MSc student in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences and his project involves mapping and quantifying plasma fibronectin matrices in whole body homeostasis.

Amrita Gosaine completed her BSc degree at McGill University in Anatomy and Cell Biology (Honours). She joined Kaartinen lab in Winter 2021, where she completed ANAT 396 research course and developed a literature review of bone marrow niches, extracellular matrix and cellular differentiation. During the summer 2021, she was an undergraduate Research Assistant. She also completed her Honours research program in Kaartinen  lab (ANAT 432) in the Fall 2021-Winter 2022, where she studied links between ECM and adipose tissue cellularity. 

Taylor Traaseth has completed her Honours BSc degree at McGill University in Anatomy and Cell Biology. She joined the Kaartinen lab to complete her Honours Research Project (ANAT 432) in Fall 2021 – Winter 2022. Taylor studied plasma fibronectin network assembly in hypertrophic adipocytes using immunofluorescence visualization and quantification.

Mansi Arora had BTech-degree in Bioinformatics from Jaypee University of Informational Technology, India, when she joined Kaartinen lab. Her project was a computational study involving examining links and associations of F13A1 gene expression with markers and pathways leading to metabolic disturbances in humans. She published three papers from her project and graduated with MSc degree in 2021.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Arora+M+and+Kaartinen+MT&sort=date

Preeti Bhatt had an BTech-degree in Biotechnology from Amity University, India, when she enrolled in the MSc program of the Division of Experimental Medicine, in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill. Her project aimed at investigating the role of plasma fibronectin in bone marrow adipogenesis and in bone loss and she is working with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and mouse models of osteoporosis. She graduate with MSc in 2020. She currently works for StemCell Technologies in Vancouver BC.

Huifang Sun had a BSc-degree in Dental Surgery from Zhengzhou University and a MSc degree in Dental Science from Wuhan University, China, when she entered Kaartinen lab and PhD studies in Craniofacial Health Sciences in the Faculty of Dentistry. Her MSc studies were aimed at aimed at understanding how the primary cilia of human periodontal ligament cells sense and transduce orthodontic forces and she has also worked on bone matrix proteins. In Kaartinen lab at she studied studying the role of transglutaminases in osteoclastogenesis and osteoclast function and used biochemical and chemical biology methods in primary monocyte and macrophage cultures. She defended her thesis 2019.