Vesa M. Kaartinen, Ph.D., received his MSc (1986) and Ph.D. (1991) degrees from the University of Kuopio, Finland, studying the molecular bases of a lysosomal storage disease, aspartylglucosaminuria. He then began a postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital Los Angeles with Dr. John Groffen and Dr. Nora Heisterkamp, where he specialized in developmental biology with particular emphasis on mouse genetics and organogenesis. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and the Developmental Biology Program in the Saban Research Institute. In 2008, he joined the U-M School of Dentistry Faculty, and in 2014 he was promoted to full professor. His research program focuses on growth factor signaling in craniofacial and cardiac development. Dr. Kaartinen has served in several institutional and national committees including both NIH and American Heart Association grant review panels, and he is a reviewer for many scientific journals.