{"id":445,"date":"2024-04-09T10:20:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T08:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/bioinformatics\/?page_id=445"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T10:50:07","slug":"personnel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/bioinformatics\/personnel\/","title":{"rendered":"Personnel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meet our team and learn more about the expertise we provide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n \n \n
\n
\n \"Virpi\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Virpi Ahola<\/p>\n \n

Research Manager, Head of Bioinformatics Center<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

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.\r\nExpertise: bulk & scRNA-seq – snRNA-seq – scATAC-seq \u2013 GWAS \u2013 WGS \u2013 phylogenetics – QTL mapping \u2013 genome sequencing & annotation – statistical modelling & machine learning<\/p>\n \n

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\n
\n \"Juha\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Juha Kek\u00e4l\u00e4inen<\/p>\n \n

IT-Specialist<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

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.\r\nExpertise: Linux, command line, containers, server infrastructure, workstations (win\/mac\/linux), network. <\/p>\n \n

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\n
\n \"Atul\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Atul Kumar<\/p>\n \n

Project Researcher<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

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. \r\n\r\nExpertise: GWAS – PRS analysis – Mendelian Randomization – Machine Learning – Statistical modelling<\/p>\n \n

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\n
\n \"Prachi\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Prachi Sao<\/p>\n \n

Project Researcher<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

I am a Project Researcher with an academic background in Bioinformatics, specializing in single-cell transcriptomics, multi-omics integration, and biomarker discovery. Following my postdoctoral research at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where I investigated tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells (TILs) and their functional heterogeneity in melanoma checkpoint immunotherapy, I now apply my expertise to deliver single-cell and multi-omics analysis for research collaborators. My technical expertise spans single-cell RNA-seq, CITE-seq, ATAC-seq, TCR-seq, spatial omics data analysis, network biology, and custom R pipelines to uncover molecular signatures across oncology, immunology, and inflammatory diseases. During my doctoral and early research, I used graph-based methods to uncover multidrug resistance mechanisms in Porphyromonas gingivalis and to map molecular signatures linking chronic inflammatory conditions.\r\n\r\nCore Expertise: Single-Cell RNA-seq (Cite-seq, ATAC-seq) | TCR Sequencing | Multi-Omics Integration | Network Biology | Bulk RNA-seq | Spatial Omics Data Analysis | R <\/p>\n \n

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\n
\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Esa Satomaa<\/p>\n \n

Project Researcher<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

My background is in statistics, especially biostatistics and psychometrics. I am also the local FinnGen analysis support person at the University of Eastern Finland. Expertise: Statistical modeling \u2013 GWAS \u2013 PRS analysis<\/p>\n \n

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\n
\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n

Veeti Reis<\/p>\n \n

Project Assistant<\/p>\n \n

Bioinformatics Center, University of Eastern Finland<\/p>\n \n

I provide computational support for research projects at the UEF Bioinformatics Center, ranging from carrying out analyses to developing software. My work has included transcriptomics, LC-MS proteomics and metabolomics data. My educational background is in Life Science Informatics.<\/p>\n \n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n\n\n\n

Previous members<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Tero Siev\u00e4nen<\/strong> (11\/2024 – 8\/2026) | Project Researcher \/ FinnGen Local Support Analyst<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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