Current Research

Bone tissue engineering and scaffolds.

Background

M.D. 12/1994, Ph.D. 4/1996. Ph.D. thesis on Histone Protein DNA Binding. Surgery and plastic surgery training between 1995-2002 in Finland.

Awards and Scholarships

• Academy of Finland: post-doctoral scholarship

Publications

J. Oikarinen, R-M. Mannermaa, T. Tarkka, N. Yli-Mäyry and K. Majamaa, "Interference of AlF4- with nucleotide and DNA binding of rat histone H1 in vitro. Implications for the pathogenesis of Alzheimer´s disease," Neuroscience Letters, vol. 132, pp. 171-174, 1991.

T. Tarkka, N. Yli-Mäyry, R-M. Mannermaa, K. Majamaa and J. Oikarinen, "Specific non-enzymatic glycation of the rat histone H1 nucleotide binding site in vitro in the precence of AlF4-. A putative mechanism for impaired chromatin function," Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, vol. 1180, pp. 294-298, 1993.

T. Tarkka, S. Friman, E. Raatikainen and J. Oikarinen, "The ATP/ADP binding domains of actin are conserved in nucleosome complexed with histone H1 and high mobility group-17 protein," Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 212, pp. 509-514, 1995.

T. Tarkka, J. Oikarinen and T. Grundström, "ATP and calcium induced conformational changes in Histone H1," FEBS Letters, vol. 406, pp. 56-60, 1997.

T. Tarkka, A. Sipola, T. Jämsä, Y. Soini, S. Ylä-Herttuala, J. Tuukkanen and T. Hautala, "Adenoviral VEGF-A gene transfer induces angiogenesis and promotes bone formation in healing osseous tissues," The Journal of Gene Medicine, vol. 5, pp. 560-566, 2003.

Abstracts

T. Tarkka, J. Tuukkanen, S. Ylä-Herttuala and T. Hautala, "Adenoviral VEGF-A gene transfer in rat bone injury model," Molecular Therapy vol. 1, pp. 558, 2000.

T. Tarkka, A. Sipola, T. Jämsä, Y. Soini, S. Ylä-Herttuala, J. Tuukkanen and T. Hautala, "Adenoviral Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF-A) gene transfer stimulates bone injury healing," Molecular Therapy vol. 5, pp. 1148, 2002.

Personal Interests

Golf, skiing.