MD-PhD Kasper Katisko, who lives in Oulu, works in Raahe as a health center doctor and part-time at the University of Eastern Finland as a visiting researcher in the Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration and Early Onset Dementia research group. The group, led by Research Director Eino Solje, has extensive expertise in clinical research as well as molecular genetics in early-stage dementias, particularly frontotemporal dementia.      

“The diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia is demanding, as the first symptoms may raise suspicion, for example, of psychiatric illness. The introduction of new biomarkers will aid in early diagnostics in the future”, Kasper says. He became interested in frontotemporal dementia as a disease because of the clinical features that settled at the interface between neurology and psychiatry. “My research focuses especially on identifying new differential diagnostic and predictive biomarkers in patients with frontotemporal dementia, other degenerative brain diseases and psychiatric diseases. Currently, I am also supervising one PhD-thesis project focusing on modifiable risk factors for frontotemporal dementia”, explains Kasper. The key collaborators of the research using cohort data and samples are Kuopio University Hospital and the Biomarker Laboratory, which is part of the Brain Research Unit of the University of Eastern Finland. “The broader aim of my research is to enable a more accurate and personalized treatment of frontotemporal dementia in the future. This requires accurate diagnostic separation based on true pathophysiology between different groups of diseases, and also within the heterogenous spectrum of frontotemporal dementia”, he explains.    

Kasper is also active in the Finnish FTD Research Network (FINFTD) consortium coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland. “National and international cooperation builds the research impact – especially availability of the larger amount of data and multicenter cooperation which enables the better usability of specialized expertise”, Kasper summarizes.  

Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration and Early Onset Dementia Research Group: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/frontotemporal-lobar-degeneration-and-early-onset-dementia/  

UEF Biomarker Laboratory: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/biomarkers-for-neurodegenerative-disorders/  and https://sites.uef.fi/neuro/biomarkers-for-neurodegenerative-disorders/   

UEF Brain Research Unit: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/brain-research-unit-clinical-drug-research/  and https://sites.uef.fi/crc/brain-research-unit/   

Finnish FTD Research Network (FinFTD): https://sites.uef.fi/finftd/