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Professor Lea Sistonen Elected to the FEBS Research Academy

The FEBS Research Academy is a newly established international body created by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS). It brings together 100 leading scientists and Nobel laureates from 24 countries to promote research, innovation, and international collaboration in the molecular life sciences.

The new academy has elected 54 full members, including Lea Sistonen, 42 honorary members, of whom 28 are Nobel laureates, and four associate members. Sistonen, Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Åbo Akademi University, is the only researcher from Finland appointed to the new organization.

– It is a great honour. I feel deeply privileged and grateful. It feels especially important to be active in this kind of international community that reaches not only researchers but also policymakers, says Sistonen.

FEBS was founded in 1964 with the original primary goal of facilitating meetings and collaboration in biochemistry among researchers across Europe. Today, FEBS is a charitable organization that supports research and education in the molecular life sciences. The organization also brings together thousands of members through national biochemical and molecular biology societies across Europe and neighbouring regions.

Sistonen’s involvement with FEBS began when, as a doctoral student, she participated in one of the practical laboratory courses organized by the federation in Berlin in the late 1980s.

– It made a lasting impression on me and was particularly important because I was at the beginning of my academic career. FEBS worked in a very practical way to help unite a highly fragmented Europe and bring researchers closer together, and that work is just as important today. My hope is that our students will have access to the same opportunities that I had.

As a professor, Sistonen has remained actively involved in FEBS, including serving as chair of several committees within the organization, and she looks forward to contributing to the work of the new research academy.

– It is important that we have these European umbrella organizations that focus on independent research and work to highlight the importance of basic research. Especially in times like these, it is crucial that we work together towards common goals and avoid being exclusive.

Since 1994, Lea Sistonen has led a laboratory investigating the mechanisms that regulate gene activity in cells. Her group’s research has shown that so-called heat shock transcription factors act as key regulators in cellular stress responses, reproduction, and cancer.

Sistonen is a member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. She is also a member of EMBO – Excellence in Life Sciences, another prestigious organization that promotes outstanding research in the life sciences and has more than 1,800 members.

The FEBS Research Academy will be formally inaugurated at the FEBS Congress 2027 in Riga, Latvia, from 3 to 7 July.

– I am very much looking forward to attending the FEBS Congress. During the same week, I have also been invited to speak at the Gordon Research Congress on Stress Proteins in Growth, Development and Disease in the Netherlands, so it will be a busy but hopefully very rewarding few days, says Sistonen.

Read more about the FEBS Research Academy on its website: https://www.febs.org/other-activities/research-academy/