Chief Physician,
Professor of Neuroimmunology
Neurocenter, Meilahti Hospitals
Languages: Finnish, English, German, Swedish
Clinical interests: Neuroimmunological and neurodegenerative disease, rare neurological diseases, neurogenetics, sleep disorders
Education: MD 1989 University of Helsinki,PhD 1993 University of Helsinki, Docent Degree 1998 University of Helsinki, Specialist in Neurology 2005 University of Helsinki, Professor of Neuroimmunology 2013 University of Helsinki
Research: Pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS), biomarkers of neuroimmunological disorders, genetics, pathophysiology and preclinical drug testing in ALS, genetics of neurodegenerative diseases. Discoveries: The first genetic linkages in multiple sclerosis (1992, 1993), genetic landscape of MS as part of a large international consortium (2011, 2013), discovery of somatic mutations in Finnish MS patients’ CD8+ lymphocytes (2017), discovery of C9ORF72 mutation in ALS (2011, one of the inventors in diagnostic patent), in collaboration with US researched unraveled pathogenetic mechanisms and testing treatment using antisense oligonucleotides of C9ORF72 ALS in stem cells derived from Finnish ALS patients (2013), discovery of genetic risk factors of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lewy Body disease in Finland (2015-19)
Visits: University of Heidelberg 1993-96 (postdoc in prof Konrad Beyreuther’s group); University College London, 2013; National Institute of Health, Bethesda, USA, 2002, 2010, 2013, 2014