Ageing and elder care research group
The ageing and elder care research group is a multidisciplinary research group (incl. social gerontology, gerontological social work, health and social management, organization sciences), which addresses various elder care management and organizational issues and the wellbeing of older people from multi-agency perspectives. The effectiveness of services is also studied with different methodical approaches.
Ahmed Mohamed (ahmed.mohamed@uef.fi)
I have studied Bachelor of Pharmacy at University of Tanta, Egypt and Master degree in Systems Biology at University of Skövde, Sweden (supported by the Swedish Institute Study Scholarship). I have been honoured to be part of the UEF-Neuro-Innovation program (MSCA-COFUND).
We are working on air pollution and its effects on the human peripheral immunity in both healthy individuals and Alzheimer disease (AD) patients. We aim to reveal the mechanistic effects of air pollution on blood cell signatures and profiles and discover novel biomarkers for air pollution prediction. We also aim to find the molecular correlations between AD and air pollution as well as peripheral biomarkers for AD diagnosis. Our work comprises of investigating the transcriptome and epigenome of the immune cells as one population as well as single cell populations, using both; in-vivo and in-vitro models. We use functional assays to confirm the outcoming results.
This study is part of the Alzheimer disease and Air pollution (ADAIR) project which is part of the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project. We will provide insights on how air pollution affects peripheral immunity, possibly providing mechanistic explanation on the increased risks on human health.
Aino-Kaisa Piironen (aino-kaisa.piironen@uef.fi)
I’m working in the Cellular Neurobiology research group led by Katja Kanninen. My doctoral research is focused on discovering plasma biomarkers for mental health dysfunction in adolescents, and the effects of environmental and lifestyle factors on mental health. The research is a part of and supported by the H2020 project Equal Life.
Andrew Agbaje (andrew.agbaje@uef.fi)
Prof. Agbaje is an award-winning physician and professor (associate) of clinical epidemiology and child health who currently investigates causal relationships of aerobic fitness, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, body composition, insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, and metabolic syndrome with arterial, cardiac, liver, and kidney structure and function from childhood through young adulthood.
He discovered arterial stiffness as a novel risk factor for paediatric obesity and insulin resistance, identified adolescence as the critical time to interrupt fat mass-insulin resistance pathologic cycle, and demonstrated light-intensity physical activity as a highly effective antidote for reversing excessive fat deposit induced by childhood sedentariness. Recently, he discovered waist-to-height ratio as a specific surrogate for fat mass but not muscle mass that could replace BMI in assessing childhood obesity. Subsequently, he was interviewed LIVE on BBC World News TV to discuss the novel findings.
As of September/October 2023, two of Prof. Agbaje’s publications were placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Clinical Medicine, while a third publication was placed in the Top 1% highly cited paper in the academic field of Biology & Biochemistry by Clarivate’s Web of Science.
He has a first authored paper in Nature Communications and was interviewed LIVE on BBC World Service Radio Newsday programme on 15th Dec 2023, BBC Radio Devon on 16th Jan 2024, and BBC World News LIVE TV programme on 14th March 2024. The University of Eastern Finland recently recorded a podcast interview of his latest findings as well as a video.
The Endocrine Society in US, recently recorded a podcast interview of his research and discussed his research in the prestigious Endocrine Magazine March 2024 edition. He was recently interviewed by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, a federation of 36 European countries’ professional associations.
His research has received extensive press coverage, with over 2,000 media mentions in 2022 and 2023 in outlets such as BBC, CNN, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mirror, BILD, Infobae, Yahoo Lifestyle, Yahoo Sport, US News & World report, DocCheck, MSN, WebMD, Medscape, The Conversation, Jerusalem Post, Helsingin Sanomat, etc, potentially reaching a global audience of more than 4.5 billion. The equivalent advertising value of these news articles is more than 30 million US dollars.
He is the principal investigator of the urFIT-child research group and has strong collaboration with world-renowned pediatricians, exercise physiologists, epidemiologists, and adult clinicians in Canada, US, UK, Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, etc.
He has received several scientific excellence awards including the prestigious EASO-Novo Nordisk Foundation for New Investigator Award in Childhood Obesity with a 300,000 Danish Kroner (~40,000 euro) prize. Other awards are the American Heart Association’s Elizabeth Barrett-Connor Research Award in Epidemiology and Prevention (once), Jeremiah and Rose Stamler Research Award (twice), and Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award (thrice).
He co-authored an American Heart Association Scientific Statement on Environmental Exposures and Pediatric Cardiology, published in Circulation. He had a video discussion of the Scientific Statement. He was an invited guest speaker to the largest mother and child center in Canada – CHU Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital Center, Canada in March 2023 to speak on the determinants of carotid intima-media thickness and arterial stiffness in pediatrics.
He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC), Department of Public Health and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
He was recently appointed an Associate Editor in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle (JCSM). He serves on the editorial board of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB), and mentors early career editorial board members. He also serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Exercise Science journal.
He is an elected Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). These titles of honour, symbol of excellence and lifetime achievement recognizes his significant contribution to cardiovascular field in Europe and America.
He is an expert advisor to the World Health Organization’s task force on preventing childhood obesity.
Primary email is andrew.agbaje@uef.fi
Secondary email is a.agbaje@exeter.ac.uk
Anna Kårlund (annka@uef.fi)
I have my educational and professional background in plant biology and food biotechnology, especially in the fields of berry research and agricultural byproduct utilization. Currently, I work with metabolomics analyses in LongITools project to study the effects of dietary exposures on human metabolism. My main research interests include the application of integrative omics approaches and in vitro digestion models in surveying the interactions between plant food matrices and human nutrition physiology, and the food technological means to improve the nutritional quality of sustainable protein sources.
Anna Lähde (anna.lahde@uef.fi)
I am professor in aerosol technology and the leader of the Sustainable Materials Group at Fine Particle and Aerosol Technology Laboratory. I have also been holding the Academy of Finland Research Fellow position between 2017 and 2022. My research is focused on the development of sustainable materials for clean air and water applications. The studies include formation, preparation and characterization of the sustainable nano- and micron-sized materials using sustainable precursors. The research also include the analysis and toxicological effects of these materials and airborne particles.
The main synthesis methods applied in the studies include aerosol processes such as spray pyrolysis, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor synthesis and high temperature induction annealing up to 2600 ºC. In my recent studies, I have focused on the synthesis of novel materials including carbon structures and graphene, superparamagnetic particles (e.g. iron and iron oxides) and catalytic materials (Au, Co) using aerosol processes and induction annealing.
Additional information of research interests can be found through the links attached in this www-site.
Anu Valtonen (anu.valtonen@uef.fi)
I’m an animal ecologist interested in effects of environmental changes on diversity, phenology and plant-herbivore interactions, with particular emphasis on conservation and restoration of diversity.
Anushree Luukela-Tandon (anushree.luukela-tandon@uef.fi)
I am a Senior Researcher (Innovations and Markets in Bioeconomy) at the Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, University of Eastern Finland.
I am keenly interested in examining how technological platforms, particularly social media, intersect with consumers’ lives. I am fascinated by the depth of impact that these platforms have had on facilitating consumers’ awareness of and behavior towards sustainable products. To this end, my research focuses on developing a nuanced understanding of how and why consumers make decisions regarding consumption of sustainable products and services, and what role technology could play in facilitating a more positive consumer outlook towards the same. Additionally, I am intrigued by the ‘dark side of social media’, or the negative effects that social media platforms have had on individual lives and passionate about examining the implications of contemporary issues like fear of missing out, on social media users.
My research has been published in leading journals like the Journal of Business Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Computers in Human Behavior, Internet Research and Information and Software Technology, to name a few.
Ari Laurén (ari.lauren@uef.fi)
Research interests:
1) Hydrology, biogeochemistry and forest production on forested peatlands,
2) Modelling of nutrient fluxes in catchment scale
3) Environmental effects of forestry and new methods for water protection
4) Biochar in water purification
Google Scholar profile:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Wu9xJ1AAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate