Kimmo Porkka

Kimmo Porkka

Professor of Clinical Hematology

Kimmo Porkka M.D, Ph.D. is a professor of clinical hematology at the University of Helsinki and his current clinical position is Head of the Department of Hematology at the Helsinki University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Prof. Porkka received his medical degrees at the Universities of Turku and Helsinki. He has received clinical training in oncology, internal medicine and hematology.

Prof. Porkka`s research experience includes clinical epidemiology, clinical breast cancer research, human molecular genetics (genetic mapping of complex diseases), basic and applied cancer research on characterization of leukemia-specific proteins and ligands (post-doctoral visit at the Burnham Institute, La Jolla, USA).

Prof. Porkka`s recent research interest relate to molecularly targeted therapies and immunotherapy of hematological malignancies. He has been the principal investigator in several Phase I-III clinical studies (academic and company-sponsored) on chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic/myeloid leukemia and performed closely linked basic science projects on leukemic stem cell targeting and immunomodulatory effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors at the Hematology Research Unit Helsinki.

Prof. Porkka is the principal investigator in the Finnish Hematology Registry and Biobank (FHRB; fhrb.fi), which is a national, population-based registry and biobanking effort commencing in 2011. Since 2015, he has served as a board member at the European Hematology Association (EHA) and as a member of the ESH (European School of Hematology) Scientific Committee.

Prof. Porkka has more than 100 original publications in international peer reviewed journals, such as New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Genetics, PNAS, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood and Leukemia.

Prof Porkka`s main collaborators include prof. Olli Kallioniemi, Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine (high-throughput compound screening in acute leukemia, molecular profiling), Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (leukemia biobanking), the Nordic CML Study Group, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Novartis and Pfizer (Phase I-III drug studies, translational research).