People

Pekka Ruusuvuori, DSc (Tech), Associate Professor, Tenure track 2nd phase

Pekka leads the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) at the University of Turku. His research focuses on developing computational methods for analyzing biomedical images, with applications in digital pathology, cancer research, and cell biology. The group develops AI-based tools for tissue analysis and works at the intersection of machine learning and biomedicine.

Contact: pekka.ruusuvuori(/at/)utu.fi

📍 Institute of Biomedicine, MedD5, Kiinamyllynkatu 10, 20520 Turku

Sartaj Ahmed Salman, PhD

Sartaj is a postdoctoral fellow in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. He received his Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan. His current research focuses on developing self-supervised foundation models for computational pathology, aiming to improve cancer diagnosis and prognosis from whole-slide images. His broader research interests include deep learning, computer vision, medical image analysis, computational pathology, bioimage informatics, and machine learning for biomedical applications, with a focus on digital pathology and AI-assisted cancer diagnostics.

Contact: sartaj.salman(/at/)utu.fi

Nisar Ahmed, PhD

Nisar Ahmed is a Senior Researcher at the University of Turku Institute of Biomedicine, Finland, and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellow under the SYS-Life programme. He holds a PhD in Computer Engineering with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence and brings over 15 years of combined academic and industry experience, and he is a Senior Member of IEEE. His current research focuses on predictive modeling of cardiovascular diseases through the integration of spatial omics and computational histopathology, leveraging multimodal data fusion and representation learning to enable precision medicine. His approach centers on building scalable and interpretable AI methods for complex biomedical data that translate into clinically relevant insights, spanning computational pathology, multimodal learning, trustworthy AI, and next-generation data-driven approaches to disease diagnosis, prognosis, and personalized healthcare. He also teaches data science, machine learning, computer vision, and cybersecurity at undergraduate and graduate levels.

Contact: nisar.ahmed(/at/)utu.fi

Masi Valkonen, MSc

Masi is a doctoral researcher in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab), working on computational pathology methods for prostate and breast cancer histopathology. His research includes AI-assisted diagnostic assessment of prostate biopsies, 3D reconstruction and virtual-reality visualization of tissue architecture from serial sections, and multi-stain image registration. He has contributed to the PANDA and ACROBAT international computational pathology challenges.

Contact: masi.f.valkonen(/at/)utu.fi

Hesam Hakimnejad, MSc

Hesam is a doctoral researcher in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab), working on generative deep learning methods for computational pathology. His research focuses on virtual staining of histology images, including virtual H&E staining using conditional diffusion models and GAN-based tissue-specific stain transfer, as well as image processing and photoacoustic imaging. He co-authored the paper that won the Best Paper Award at the 6th IEEE Conference on ICT Solutions for eHealth (ICTS4eHealth 2026).

Contact: hesam.hakimnejad(/at/)utu.fi

Niloufar Rahimizadeh Asli, MSc

Niloufar is an ImmuDocs doctoral researcher in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab). Her current research focuses on computational histopathology of colorectal cancer.

Contact: niloufar.n.rahimizadehasli(/at/)utu.fi

Hanga Tárkányi, MSc

Hanga is a mathematician from Budapest, Hungary with a Master’s degree in Statistical Data Analytics from Tampere University. She works in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) as an ImmuDocs doctoral researcher. Her current research focuses on creating quantitative spatial tissue analyses in 3D employing AI foundation models.

Contact: hanga.tarkanyi(/at/)utu.fi

Hyder Abbas, MSc

Hyder is a project researcher in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab), working on generative deep learning for virtual staining of histopathology tissue. He co-authored “Transfer Learning Based on Generative Adversarial Network for Tissue-Specific Virtual Staining,” which won the Best Paper Award at the 6th IEEE Conference on ICT Solutions for eHealth (ICTS4eHealth 2026).

Contact: hyabba(/at/)utu.fi

Phuong Le, MD

Phuong is a Project Researcher in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Imaging at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland, and a research assistant at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku. Previously, she graduated as a Medical Doctor and obtained her first Master’s degree in Medical Morphology (Pathology) from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City (UMP), Vietnam. She has more than 10 years of experience as a pathologist, with expertise in evaluating a wide range of general histopathology specimens. Her current research focuses on deep learning interpretation in computational histopathology, particularly the analysis of model-driven features in survival prediction using histopathology imaging.

Contact: phuong.th.le(/at/)utu.fi

Teemu Tuominen, BSc

Teemu is a research assistant in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku. He works on data visualization and data analysis of biomedical data, supporting the group’s computational pathology research.

Contact: teemu.s.tuominen(/at/)utu.fi

Linda Lehtniemi, BSc

Linda is a research assistant in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Engineering and Health Technology at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland.

Contact: linda.o.lehtniemi(/at/)utu.fi

Siiri Kopra, BSc

Siiri is a research assistant in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Engineering and Health Technology at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland.

Contact: siiri.a.kopra(/at/)utu.fi

Madumali Nissanka, BSc

Madumali is a summer intern in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Imaging at the University of Turku (UTU), Finland.

Contact: mbdani(/at/)utu.fi

Bishwajit Shil, BSc

Bishwajit is a summer intern in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Master’s student in Biomedical Imaging at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

Contact bishwajit.shil(/at/)abo.fi

Sonja Latonen

Sonja is a summer intern in the Bioimage Informatics Group – BIIT (Ruusuvuori lab) and is currently a Bachelor’s student in Biochemical Engineering at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Finland.

Contact sonja.latonen(/at/)utu.fi