Dr. Riikka Mäkilä

Since June 2024

Postdoc in the Gutjahr lab

2023 -2024

Postdoc in the lab of Dr. Melis Kucukoglu-Topcu at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Studying how cytokinin and its downstream targets regulate secondary growth in Arabidopsis and poplar.

2015 - 2023

Doctoral thesis in the Lab of Prod. Ari Pekka Mähönen at the University of Helsinki, Finland. “Hormonal regulation of vascular cambium stem cell niche“

2010 - 2015

Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biotechnology from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

Scholarships

2026-2028 DFG Walter Benjamin fellowship from DFG

2024-2026 Doctoral fellowship from the Finnish Cultural Foundation through Postdocpool

2019-2020 Doctoral Programme in Plant Sciences, University of Helsinki, paid doctoral student position

Publications

Blomster T., Siligato R., Mäkilä R., Fatz W., Lyu M., de Luis Balaguer A., Ye L, Gildea I., Safronov O., Somervuo P., Růžička K., Salojärvi J., Sozzani R., Kucukoglu Topcu M., Mähönen AP., Plant hormone and peptide signaling converge in the genetic network regulating cambium activation in Arabidopsis roots, Plant Cell, 2026, doi: 10.1093/plcell/koag059

Zhang X.*, Wang X.*, Smetana O.*, Mäkelä M., Mäkilä R., Scarpella E., Zhang J., Mähönen AP., Auxin transport positions stem cells in the vascular cambium during normal development and regeneration, PNAS, 2025, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2511087122, * these authors contributed equally

Eswaran G., Rutten J.P., Han J.*, Iida H.*, Lopez Ortiz J.*, Mäkilä R.*, Wybouw B.*, Vainio L., Porcher A., Leal Gavarron M., Zhang J., Blomster T., Wang X., Dolan D., Smetana O., Brady S.M., Kucukoglu Topcu M., ten Tusscher K., Etchells P.J., Mähönen AP. Identification of cambium stem cell factors and their positioning mechanism, 2024, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.adj8752 *these authors contribued equally

Wang X.*, Mäkilä R.*, Mähönen AP. From procambium patterning to cambium activation and maintenance in the Arabidopsis root, 2023, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2023.102404 * these authors contributed equally

Mäkilä R., Wybouw B., Smetana O., Vainio L., Sóle-Gil A., Lyu M., Ye L., Wang X., Siligato R., Jennes M., Murphy A., Mähönen AP. Gibberellins promote polar auxin transport to regulate stem cell fate decisions in cambium, 2023, Nature Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01360-w

Smetana O., Mäkilä R., Lyu M., Amiryousefi A., Sanchez Rodriquez F., Wu M-F., Sole-Gil A., Leal Gavarron M., Siligato R., Miyashima S., Roszak P., Blomster T., Reed J., Broholm S., Mähönen AP. High levels of auxin signaling define the stem-cell organizer of the vascular cambium, 2019, Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0837-0