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A Lost Mitten and Other Stories

The project, Lost Mitten and Other Stories, examines a new sense of neighbour relations that transpires as a result of growing mobility. The project focuses on the ways in which these new neighbour relations or a sense of neighbourliness emerge from stories related to personal items of significance, and the way in which these stories are perceived. Lost Mitten and Other Stories is an interdisciplinary project that seeks collaboration between art and science. The project is carried out in eastern Finland.

The main concern of the project is to find out how the items of personal significance and the stories related to them help establish dialogue and, consequently, new kinds of mobile and cross-border neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. Furthermore, the purpose is to explore how dialogic interaction helps promote, for example, the construction of cultural citizenship and create new, migrating, deterritorial cultural heritages. The items of personal significance as well as the stories relating to them are examined through a materialistic, cultural, linguistic, and narrative point of view and are, additionally, exhibited through artistic, interactive displays. The items of personal significance are understood as a poetic and political medium of various dialogues between past and present, between immigrants and natives, between different generations, between mobile and sedentary people.

The approach and the subject matter of the project are topical: immigration, different mobilities, the encounter of languages and cultures, and thereby, emerging new neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness. The multidisciplinary approach, combining different methods of science and art, enables new ways of examining the issue of neighbour relations and a sense of neighbourliness.

The project combines science and art innovatively and, therefore, generates new methods to investigate the current issues of different mobilities, language and cultural encounters, and challenges arising from new neighbour relations.

The project is funded by the Kone Foundation.

A.B.M. Manjur (kaiser.manjur@uef.fi)

The projects I am working on are important research in the field of gene regulation. Furthermore, the TFs that we study, glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and androgen receptor (AR) are important therapeutic targets in inflammation and prostate cancer respectively. On the chromatin environment, GR and AR exert their functions by interacting with other assisting proteins, coregulators. Thus, coregulators can affect the outcome of GR and AR activation through different processes, such as chromatin remodeling, histone-binding and post-translational modification. Despite the importance of coregulatory interactions in GR and AR function, the protein interactomes of these important drug targets have remained poorly defined. The results from these projects will enable us to increase our understanding about the regulatory mechanisms of these two physiologically important TFs.

Aarthi Ravindran (aarthi.ravindran@uef.fi)

My research work focuses on studying SMC specific translatome using transgenic mice with atherosclerosis and EGFP tagging at the larger ribosomal subunit driven by aSMA promoter. Finally, validating these genes using immunohistology and spatial transcriptomics. The resulting SMC specific translatome will help in identifying the novel genes that are enriched in SMCs at atherosclerosis disease.

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.

Ahmed Tawfek (ahmed.tawfek@uef.fi)

Part of the team focusing on the development of COVID-19 Vaccine.
M.Sc (general toxicology), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
B.Sc (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Alexandria University, Egypt.
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Anna Kaasinen (anna.kaasinen@uef.fi)

Research work of University Lecturer Anna Kaasinen concentrates on mathematical modelling, inverse problems, and their applications. The primary focus of her research is to develop mathematical models and computational methods especially for process control.

Kaasinen teaches courses in mathematics and provides study guidance to undergraduate students. She also takes part in planning and developing teaching in general at the department. Her research related to teaching and learning concentrates mainly on flipped learning and on university mathematics students’ study habits and the use of learning materials.

Anna Kuusi (anna.kuusi@uef.fi)

My research interests are in motivation, perfectionism, and academic well-being outcomes. My dissertation focuses on secondary students’ perfectionism, academic and general well-being, and achievement striving, with a special focus on gender differences and developmental dynamics. Hopefully my research will produce a better understanding of the role strivings and concerns play in students’ well-being.

Anna-Leena Nylund (anna-leena.nylund@uef.fi)

My primary tasks are
– Dynasty Information Service Application, applying the system versatilely and instructing other UEF users
– general administrative tasks at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology
– instruction of Faculty’s doctoral students, especially on Kuopio campus, and preparation of their administrative matters needed for public defenses
– registry tasks of the Faculty
– updates on UEF Annual Calendar and Heimo intranet pages

Annakaisa Haapasalo (annakaisa.haapasalo@uef.fi)

I am Professor in Molecular Neurodegeneration and Research Group Leader. My current research interests are: Potential synaptic dysfunction, contribution of microglia and inflammation, and alterations in protein degradation and cellular energy metabolism in the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) as well as fluid biomarkers in FTD and other early onset dementias. Currently, I also coordinate the EU JPND programme-funded SynaDeg (Pre-diagnostic early synaptic disturbances in neurodegenerative diseases) project. In addition, I am Chair of the Regional Steering Group of the Kuopio Brain & Mind network belonging under the umbrella of Neurocenter Finland.

The aim of our studies is to provide new insights into the molecular basis of genetic (especially C9orf72 repeat expansion-associated) and sporadic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and translate our findings for the benefit of the patients by discovering novel biomarker or therapeutic candidate targets.