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About Ari Pekka
Ari Pekka Mähönen is Academy Professor and Professor of Plant Molecular Biology at the Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, where he leads the Plant Growth Dynamics research group affiliated with the Viikki Plant Science Centre. He obtained his Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Kuopio in 1999 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki in 2006, with a thesis on vascular development in Arabidopsis thaliana roots supervised by Yrjö Helariutta. From 2006 to 2009, he conducted postdoctoral research in Ben Scheres' laboratory at Utrecht University, focusing on growth dynamics of Arabidopsis root meristems and the formation of the PLETHORA stem cell factor gradient. Returning to Helsinki, he served as project leader from 2009 to 2010, became tenure-track group leader at the Institute of Biotechnology in 2011, Academy Research Fellow from 2013 to 2018, HiLIFE tenure-track Associate Professor in 2019, and was tenured as full Professor of Plant Molecular Biology in 2022. He has been appointed Academy Professor by the Research Council of Finland for 2026–2031.
Mähönen's research investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying vascular cambium function, which produces wood (xylem) and phloem bidirectionally, employing Arabidopsis thaliana roots and hybrid aspen stems as models. His work addresses hormone signaling by cytokinin and auxin, stem cell regulation, cell proliferation, differentiation, and fate plasticity in wood formation processes. He has developed tools such as tissue-specific inducible gene editing systems for precise functional studies. Mähönen received the Scandinavian Plant Physiology Society Early Career Award in 2015, an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2019, and was elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters in 2025; his doctoral thesis garnered awards including the Finnish Academy of Science Award and University of Helsinki Award in 2006. Key publications include "Recruitment of bifunctional regulator thermospermine to methylated ribosomes directs xylem fate" (Science, 2026), "Auxin transport positions stem cells in the vascular cambium during normal development and regeneration" (PNAS, 2025), "Identification of cambium stem cell factors and their evolutionary conservation" (Science, 2024), "Cytokinins initiate secondary growth in the Arabidopsis root through auxin biosynthesis" (Current Biology, 2021), and "An inducible genome editing system for plants" (Nature Plants, 2020).
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