M.Sc. Oskari Timonen works as a Project Researcher in the Clinical Epilepsy Research Group and as a PhD student in Doctoral Program in Molecular Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland.  

The Clinical Epilepsy Research Group aims to optimize treatment outcomes for patients with epilepsy through existing therapies, as well as developing new, more effective and safer treatments. Epilepsy syndrome is an entity formed by the seizure type of epilepsy, the age of onset of seizures and research findings. About 1,000 genes have already been identified against the background of epilepsies, which regulate what type of epilepsy is manifested in a patient. The research group is led by Professor Reetta Kälviäinen and the research is carried out in close cooperation between the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital.  

Oskari’s research is focusing on the genetic data analysis of epilepsy. “The exact topic of my research is data analysis and data management of clinical exome sequencing of epilepsy, development of analysis chain and the REDCap management in the collection of phenotype data“, Oskari describes. The first part of the dissertation work related to the development of the method was completed in 2019 and material for the second publication is currently being collected. Oskari mentions the Epi25 Collaborative as an international major collaborative entity, in which the University of Eastern Finland is also involved.  

Clinical Epilepsy Research Group: https://sites.uef.fi/clinical-epilepsy-research/     

Epi25 Collaborative: https://epi-25.org/