Personnel
Meet our team and learn more about the expertise we provide:
Virpi Ahola
Research director, Head of Bioinformatics Center
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
My background is in Statistics and Bioinformatics. Last 10+ years I have led or coordinated bioinformatics platforms and multidisciplinary research projects on human and insect genomics. My experience focusses on NGS-based (multi)omics and single-cell analysis. The research questions I have contributed include studies of cancer, neuronal diseases, embryonic development, stem cell-based research and insect evolutionary genomics, as well as genomics research on farm animals, food microbes and plant pathogens. Expertise: bulk & scRNA-seq – snRNA-seq – scATAC-seq – GWAS – WGS – phylogenetics – QTL mapping – genome sequencing & annotation – statistical modelling & machine learning
Juha Kekäläinen
IT-specialist
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
IT Specialist at Bioinformatics Center and at IT Services for Research. Maintaining, developing and user support of our SLURM HPC cluster. Also maintaining and supporting REDCap data management platform. Expertise: Linux, command line, containers, server infrastructure, workstations (win/mac/linux), network.
Tero Sievänen
Project researcher/ FinnGen local support analyst
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
My background is in cell and molecular biology. I’ve worked on non-coding RNAs in cancer research, particularly focusing on Lynch syndrome. I’ve also explored areas such as sport and health sciences along with biogerontology. Currently, my focus is on conducting GWAS analyses as part of the FinnGen study. Expertise: RNA-seq – Small-RNA seq – GWAS – FinnGen
Atul Kumar
Project researcher
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
I have an academic background in Bioinformatics with a specialisation in applying machine learning models to voluminous biological data. My research is focused on analysing multi-omics data using various statistical and machine-learning approaches. Expertise: GWAS – PRS analysis – Mendelian Randomization – Machine Learning – Statistical modelling
Juho Mononen
University Teacher
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
Veeti Reis
Research assistant
Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland
At the Bioinformatics Center, my main responsibility is developing software for research purposes. Master’s student in Life Science Informatics.
Associate members
Merja Heinäniemi
Professor
Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland
I have deep interest in biological systems and strong research background in genomics and omics data analysis methods. I’ve worked extensively in cancer, regulatory and single cell genomics fields. Currently, I am involved in developing the Bioinformatics center and molecular profiling services at UEF, in addition to acting as research group leader and as professor of computational biomedicine. Expertise: Whole genome sequencing – RNA-seq – Single cell genomics – AI applications in omics
Sami Heikkinen
Research director
Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland
I have a background in genetics, molecular biology and, during the last couple decades, all manner of bioinformatics. My lead a small research team that focuses on the identification and molecular characterization of human genetic variation that alters the gene regulatory capacity of transcription factors and contributes to diseases with identified genetic component like type 2 diabetes or Alzheimer’s disease . I also collaborate widely with research teams focusing on the genetics and disease mechanisms of metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. Expertise: RNA-seq – ATAC-seq and ChIP-seq – Genetics and GWAS – FinnGen – WGS and proteomics.