Salla Maarit Koskela

Fabrication of high-performing yet renewable and biodegradable materials is one of the current challenges in sustainable development. A possible solution is offered by mechanically robust natural polymers such as silk and cellulose that have proven to be excellent candidates for next-generation sustainable materials. Nature also gives us inspiration how to assemble these building-blocks into complex and hierarchical bulk materials. My research aims to fabricate engineered living materials (ELMs) that take advantage of these robust natural polymers. I am especially interested in production of engineered enzymes and proteins in yeast that may be useful in altering the material properties. In addition, synthetic biology provides us interesting ways to control the material properties. Such living materials have a wide range of potential applications from therapeutic to self-healing purposes.

Prior my current post as a Staff Scientist, I did a 3-year postdoctoral research in Prof. Markus Linder's Biomolecular materials - group at Aalto University. I have obtained a PhD at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. In my PhD work I focused on lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) and their utilization towards environmentally friendly production of nanocellulose and cellulose-based materials. My master's degree is from University of Helsinki, Finland, where my main subject was fungal biotechnology.

Key areas of expertise:

protein production in fungal hosts, carbohydrate-active enzymes, synthetic biology, and the use of enzymes and proteins in fabrication of nanocellulose-based materials. 

Current and former students:

Karoliina Elfving, PhD student (co-supervisor, 6/2023-)

Tiia Siivola, PhD student (co-supervisor, 12/2023-)

Cleopatra Siders Silva, MSc student (6/2025-)

Sari Kupiainen, MSc student (4/2025-)

Venla Laitinen, MSc student (2/2025-)

Jenni Klemola, MSc student (graduated 2025, Aalto)

Konsta Laajalehto, BSc student (graduated 2025, Aalto)

Cleopatra Siders Silva, BSc student (Graduated 2024, Aalto)

Venla Laitinen, BSc student (Graduated 2024, Aalto)

Sofia Appelgren, MSc student (Graduated 2018, KTH)

Paula Frieberg, BSc student (Graduated 2019, KTH)

Ella Eriksson, BSc student (Graduated 2019, KTH)

Olivia Andersson, BSc student (Graduated 2019, KTH)

Jenny Axelsson, BSc student (Graduated 2019, KTH)

Linda Ehrenborg, BSc student (Graduated 2019, KTH)

Anton Pintar, BSc student (Graduated 2018, KTH)

Olivia Andén, BSc student (Graduated 2018, KTH)

Jenny Sjöström, BSc student (Graduated 2018, KTH)

Elleonore Ståhl, BSc student (Graduated 2018, KTH)

Advisor for team Stockholm (2018) and Aalto-Helsinki (2023) in the synthetic biology competition iGEM

Activities:

• Chairperson in LIBER Center of Excellence research seminar 2/10/2025
• Chairperson in the annual research seminar of Bio2 department, Aalto University, 2025
• 21st RRB Conference (Poster) June 2-4th 2025, Turku, Finland
• 269th ACS National Meeting and Expo (Poster) Mar 23-27st 2025, San Diego, USA
• 5th Next-generation Synthetic Biology Conference, Dec 10-11th, 2024, Ghent, Belgium
• 267th ACS National Meeting and Expo (Speaker) Mar 17-21st 2024, New Orleans, USA
• The 5th International Cellulose Conference, 2023, Hiroshima, Japan
• TAPPI Nano international conference on nanotechnology for renewable materials (Speaker) Jun 8-11th 2020, Helsinki, Finland (event cancelled due to covid-19)
• Green China, 1st International Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference (Speaker) Oct 17-19th 2019, Beijing, China
• Stockholm Cell Wall Meeting III (Speaker), Sep 18th 2019, Stockholm, Sweden
• 257th ACS National Meeting and Expo (Poster) Mar 31st - 4th Apr 2019, Orlando, USA
• 29th Fungal Genetics Conference (Poster) Mar 14-19th 2017, Pasific Grove, USA

Teaching

• MSc course "Microbial Biotechnology" (Invited lecturer), Sept 22th 2025, University of Helsinki
• MSc course "Enzyme Technology" (CHEM-E3117) (lecturer) 2025
• MSc course "CHEM-E8110" (Lecturer) 2024, Aalto University
• MSc course "CHEM-E8110" (Lecturer) 2023, Aalto University
• PhD course "Plant Cell Walls" (Invited lecturer) Jan 12th 2023, University of Helsinki
• Undergraduate course in biological engineering (Invited speaker) Jul 21th 2022, Mapúa University, Philippines

Peer Review

• Biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts (Springer Nature), Reviewer 2025
• Cellulose (Springer Nature), Reviewer 2025
• Carbohydrate Polymer Technologies and Applications (Elsevier), Reviewer 2024
• International Journal of Biological Macromolecules (Elsevier), Reviewer 2024
• Journal of Polymer Science (Wiley), Reviewer 2023
• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (ACS), Reviewer 2023