Jarkko Rautio is professor of pharmaceutical chemistry and head of the multidisciplinary Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry (PMC) research group at the School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland (formerly University of Kuopio), where he received his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry in 2000. He subsequently carried out his postdoctoral studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA, and was a visiting scientist at GlaxoSmithKline, North Carolina, while also co-founding the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Prodrug Focus Group in 2005. Professor Rautio's research focuses on chemistry-based methods, especially prodrugs, to overcome the liabilities of drugs.