We’re delighted to welcome several fresh faces to our teams. Allow us to introduce Anna Huhtinen!
Anna is a friendly and outgoing person. “I believe my friends would say that I am also reliable and ready to help. I’m always ready to open my home for friends and social gatherings. My husband would probably say that I am also the project manager of our family,” Anna humorously describes her qualities, which align well with her job.
Anna has a deep connection with the German language and culture, “As a child, I lived with my family in Munich, Germany, for almost four years, and I started school there. When we moved back to Finland, I continued at the German School of Helsinki”, she recalls.
“When I was maybe four or five years old, I remember sitting on the couch browsing my parents’ study books.“
Coming from a family of physicists, Anna was nurtured in an environment that encouraged curiosity about the world, especially nature. “I guess I grew up in an atmosphere where I was encouraged to be curious and interested in the surrounding world, and particularly nature. When I was maybe four or five years old, I remember sitting on the couch browsing my parents’ study books and being excited about every ball-and-stick molecular model I could find”, Anna tells us. Eventually this curiosity led her from dreaming of becoming a doctor to pursuing a path in health sciences through biochemistry and cell biology.
Anna’s academic journey at the Technical University of Helsinki (now Aalto University), where she majored in Microbiology and Bioprocess Technology, culminated in a master’s thesis on adrenergic receptors and cell culture. “I was lucky enough to get the chance to carry out this project in a small Turku-based drug development company. This sort of switched my career into a new direction. My PhD thesis project was about a specific adrenergic receptor, the alpha2B-adrenoceptor, and how it regulates the proliferation and contraction of vascular smooth muscle cells. The project was pioneering and technically very challenging because I basically first had to set up all methods before I even could start investigating the actual topic”, Anna recollects the challenges along the way.
“I participated in the preparation of more than 15 manuscripts and more than 80 scientific posters.”
After her dissertation, Anna transitioned to a role at Aurexel Life Sciences, where she expanded her expertise into medical and scientific writing.” I participated in the preparation of more than 15 manuscripts and more than 80 scientific posters, and the variety of different topics I got to work with was so exciting and inspiring!”, she reflects.
Anna feels warmly welcomed at MedEngine already. For the past six years, she says she’s been working in her home office in Turku, so joining the colleagues at the office every week feels really inspiring and refreshing. “Spending a day in Helsinki actually feels like a small trip abroad,” Anna says, continuing, “Though my sister who lives in Espoo says the same about Turku, so maybe it’s just a thing between these cities.”
“I love singing and sung in many choirs for more than 20 years!”
Outside of work, Anna loves gardening and swimming. Anna is a person who gets easily excited about new things and has a lot of interests and hobbies. She currently enjoys all kinds of crafts, like knitting and sewing. “I also love singing and I’ve sung in many choirs for more than 20 years. A year ago, my husband and I joined a choir, and it has been so much fun! When we practice new songs together, there really is no time to think about anything else but the chords and trying to sing them correctly. True mindfulness after a long day of work!” Anna smiles.
Great to have you along, Anna. A warm welcome!
