Johanna Ivaska

Johanna Ivaska is a leader in understanding how integrin adhesion receptors transmit ECM-derived signals that regulate cancer cell survival, invasion, and drug resistance, with particular expertise in integrin trafficking and recycling mechanisms. Her work revealed that endosomal integrin recycling is hijacked by cancer cells to sustain aberrant signaling from internalized integrin-growth factor receptor complexes. She has shown that integrin mechanosensing of ECM stiffness activates pro-survival signaling that confers resistance to targeted therapies. Her research on fibronectin-integrin interactions in the tumor microenvironment has identified new therapeutic vulnerabilities.