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.
Erik Kaipiainen (erik.kaipiainen@uef.fi)
Industrial Forest Biotechnology; Biorefining; New biobased products; Forest Health; Climate Change Management. Experienced Researcher with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Skilled in Sustainable Development, Plant Ecology, Biodiversity, Biomass, and Natural Resource Management. Early: strong research professional with a Doctor of philosophy focused in Plant physiology and ecology from Komarov Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg.
Flobert Ndah (flobert.ndah@uef.fi)
Climate change and feedback effects on arctic evergreen and deciduous shrubs, and nitrogenous and carbon-based gas fluxes from subarctic ecosystems.
My research focuses on the effects of warming and increased cloudiness on Greenhouse gas (GHG) and other reactive gas (HONO, BVOCs) fluxes from subarctic ecosystems, including plant structure and physiology. The measurement of greenhouse gases and other reactive gases simultaneously represents a novel way of studying the role of northern ecosystems in climate change.
In vitro and ex vivo electrophysiology core facility
Johnson Lok (johnson.lok@uef.fi)
Building a Gut Microbiome Engineering Toolbox for In-Situ Therapeutic Treatments for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (BestTreat) is a program funded by the European Commission which aims to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic methods for NAFLD based on gut microbiota.
Aim of my study is to investigate the association between the NAFLD progression and alterations in gut microbiota and metabolites. Correlations between metagenomics, metabolomics, imaging data and other prognostic biomarkers for NAFLD are investigated to elucidate the mechanisms behind metabolic benefits conveyed by specific functional strains of the gut microbiota to the pathophysiology and pathogenesis of NAFLD. Metagenomic and metabolomic signatures of specific gut microbiota and metabolites will be used to develop novel microbiome-based disease prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic interventions for NAFLD.
Marjukka Kolehmainen (marjukka.kolehmainen@uef.fi)
My research concerns about the health effects of foods and their components that I have been studying in acute, short and long term clinical dietary interventions for more than 20 years. Regarding foods, main scientific interest has been in the impact of whole grain cereals and berries and more recently also in other plant based foods and their bioactive components from the molecular level to whole body physiology. The recent research focus has been in the effects mediated by the gut microbiota and related gut barrier function. Thus, we have been setting up in vitro model for studying gut microbiota activity and will continue developing it further with modular gut barrier interaction modelling. Gut related activities are of great interest since its strong interaction with high fibre and protein foods and contribution to the development of inflammation, but also its contribution to both physical and mental health and wellbeing. In addition, I am interested in gut-liver axis and gut barrier permeability in this context, if we can find diet related factors to support healthy gut barrier and to prevent liver disease.
Mika Tarvainen (mika.tarvainen@uef.fi)
Mika P. Tarvainen, Ph.D, Docent, received the M.Sc. degree in 1999 and the Ph.D. degree in 2004 from the University of Kuopio, Kuopio,Finland. He is currently a Senior Researcher at the Department of Applied Physics,University of Eastern Finland and Consultant at the Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital.
His current research interests include medical signal analysis methods and physiological modelling and their applications in assessing human health. Specifically, development of analysis methods for cardiovascular signals, including heart rate variability (HRV), and psychophysiological measurements. The main research applications include objective assessment of occupational stress, complications of diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
Mika Tarvainen is also the founder of Kubios Oy and Partner at Heart2Save Oy, both companies are based in Finland. Kubios Oy is a start-up company providing HRV and other biomedical signal analysis software tools for researchers and consumers, as well as algorithms and custom-built software for the health and wellbeing industry. Kubios HRV software is the most detailed HRV analysis software in the market and is used at roughly 1200 universities in 128 countries.
Minna Kaikkonen-Määttä (minna.kaikkonen@uef.fi)
Minna Kaikkonen-Määttä is a Professor of Cardiovascular Genomics and Director of the Single Cell Genomics Core at University of Eastern Finland. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Cellular Biology and Physiology from the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France, in 2002 and Master’s degree in Molecular Biology from University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2005. She obtained her PhD in Molecular Medicine in 2008. She did her postdoctoral studies at University of California San Diego investigating transcriptional gene regulation and enhancer RNAs (2009-2012) before moving to University of Eastern Finland to establish her own research group. She is the vice head of A.I.Virtanen Institute, President of the Finnish Society of Atherosclerosis and member of the board of European Vascular Biology Organization, Scandinavian Society of Atherosclerosis, and Membership Engagement Committee of the American Society of Human Genetics.