Marja Jäättelä is a professor, MD, and head of the Cell Death and Metabolism research unit at the Danish Cancer Society (DSC). At DSC, she also holds at position as the Director of the Danish National Research Foundation Center of Excellence for Autophagy Recycling and Disease. She received her MSc. from the University of Helsinki in 1989 and already became a Ph.D. from Helsinki University in 1990 with a dissertation on cytotoxic and regulatory effects of tumor necrosis factors. Her research area is programmed cell death (apoptosis).