Joint Metabolic Diseases RC and NEURO-RC seminar

Welcome to the joint seminar organized by Metabolic Diseases RC and NEURO-RC, 31.5.2023 at 3-4 pm (online)

Assoc Prof Eija Pirinen from the University of Oulu, will give a talk on NAD⁺ metabolism - a diagnostic and therapy target for metabolic and brain diseases.

Assoc Prof Eija Pirinen received her PhD in Molecular Medicine at the University of Kuopio in 2009. In her PhD studies, she investigated the role of polyamine catabolism as a regulator of glucose, energy and cholesterol metabolism in mice under supervision of Profs Markku Laakso and Juhani Jänne. Thereafter, she worked as a post-doc in the laboratory of Professor Johan Auwerx at the EPFL, Switzerland, in 2010–2013. During that time she focused on studying the effect of NAD+ boosting on muscle energy and mitochondrial metabolism in common metabolic diseases and mitochondrial disorders. After returning back to Finland, she improved her understanding on mitochondrial disorders by working as a senior post-doc in Professor Anu Suomalainen Wartiovaara’s laboratory for one and half years at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She started to run her own laboratory in 2015 at the University of Helsinki, Finland, when she received the prestigious Academy Research Fellowship. In 2022, Eija Pirinen moved to Oulu when she received a position as an Associate Professor (tenure track) in Molecular Medicine at the University of Oulu, Finland. Her research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms behind mitochondrial dysfunction and NAD+ metabolism disturbances in mitochondrial myopathies, obesity and cardiometabolic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer cachexia. Her group is also developing NAD+-boosting and mitochondrial-activating treatment options for these diseases.

For more information, please contact

Jukka Jolkkonen, jukka.jolkkonen(at)uef.fi and Anna Karjalainen, anna.karjalainen(at)uef.fi