Introducing Early Stage Researcher Riikka Lampinen

Introducing Early Stage Researcher Riikka Lampinen

Early Stage Researcher Riikka Lampinen  works as a PhD student in the Neurobiology of Disease research group led by Associate Professor Katja Kanninen at the A.I. Virtanen Institute of the University of Eastern Finland. Her first article for the doctoral dissertation, “Single-Cell RNA-Seq Analysis of Olfactory Mucosal Cells of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients,” has just been published. In addition, two article manuscripts have been submitted for publication and dissertation writing under the working title “Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease” has just begun. 

“Patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, often describe changes in the sense of smell as their first symptoms,” describes Riikka background of her research topic. The study used cells of the nasal olfactory mucosa derived from biopsies of olfactory mucosa obtained from patients with Alzheimer’s disease and control subjects. Single-cell RNA sequencing of the cell cultures identified several cell types of olfactory mucosa and new information was obtained on gene expression alterations in Alzheimer disease patients’ olfactory mucosal cells. This new olfactory mucosa cell model will be used in the future in the Transport derived Ultrafines and the Brain Effects (TUBE) project coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland, focusing on the study of the link between air pollution and brain diseases. International project brings important insight into how air pollutants and microbes in the air we breathe can travel to the brain and interfere with brain function. The TUBE project involves the main international collaborators of Riikka’s dissertation research at QIMR Berghofer in Australia and the University of Verona in Italy. 

“The key collaborators of my dissertation research are the Otorhinolaryngology Outpatient Clinic of the Kuopio University Hospital, the KUH Neurocenter and the Brain Research Unit of the University of Eastern Finland,” says Riikka. Riikka is grateful for the support and cooperation of the principal supervisor of the doctoral thesis, Associate Professor Katja Kanninen, international and national collaborators, study subjects and their loved ones and fellow researchers in Neurobiology of Diseases research group. “My goal is to have my doctoral defence by the end of 2022,” says Riikka. 

 

Lampinen et al 2022: Single-Cell RNA-Seq Analysis of Olfactory Mucosal Cells of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients. Cells. 11(4), 676. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells11040676  

More information: https://www.uef.fi/en/article/human-olfactory-mucosa-cell-model-opens-a-new-perspective-on-alzheimers-disease  

Transport derived Ultrafines and the Brain Effects (TUBE) project: https://www.tube-project.eu/  

Neurobiology of Disease research group: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/neurobiology-of-disease/