Suvi joined GIFS in September 2022 to work on the “Enabling Canola Protein Optimization (ECPO)” project. The ECPO project is a collaboration between GIFS and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Saskatoon Research and Development Centre. This project aims to improve the value of canola meal, the currently undervalued protein-rich side product of canola oil production.

Suvi is originally from Finland. She completed her university studies in the U.K., first a combined BSc and MSc degree in plant sciences at the University of Glasgow, followed by a PhD in plant molecular genetics at the University of Oxford. Her PhD research focused on identifying genes that control the development of filamentous rooting cells — root hairs and rhizoids — in plants. She then moved to Perth, Australia, where she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and CSIRO synthetic biology fellow at the University of Western Australia. In her postdoctoral projects, she investigated how RNA-binding proteins control gene expression in plant chloroplasts and mitochondria, as well as developed synthetic RNA-binding proteins to control gene expression in these organelles. Suvi’s research interests include synthetic biology, protein engineering and bioinformatics.

In her free time, Suvi enjoys photography, gardening and trail running.