Maria Sundvall received her MD degree from the University of Turku in 2003, and defended her PhD thesis at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Genetics, University of Turku, in 2007. From 2011 she worked nearly 4 years as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. After returning to Finland in 2015 she established her own research group at the University of Turku. Dr. Sundvall received a specialist physician degree in clinical oncology in 2018. Since 2018 Dr. Sundvall has worked as a part-time clinical lecturer at the Institute of Biomedicine, a part-time Academy of Finland clinical researcher and a part-time specialist physician in clinical oncology at Turku University Hospital.