Karolina Kauppi

Currently (may 2023) looking for a PhD student - please contact me for more information!

My current primary research project, funded by VR, Umeå University, and Karolinska Institutet, is focused onthe interplay between inherited risk factors and inflammatory factors for the risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia in aging.

Normal aging is associated with changes in the brain that cause many cognitive abilities, such as memory, to decline in most people, but the individual variations are large! While some maintain very good cognitive ability in old age, others undergo more severe declines. Both individual variations within the framework of normal aging and the risk of developing dementia, or pathological aging, have a significant genetic component with a complex inheritance pattern. The project aims to identify the mechanisms through which genes act and how they interact with other factors such as gender and environmental factors.

In my research, I analyze data from the Betula project in Umeå where people's cognitive abilities, health, and brain structure have been followed for a long time, as well as the Swedish Twin Registry at the Karolinska Institutet, and the international open database UK Biobank. In this project, I link genetic factors for Alzheimer's disease with results from cognitive tests, biomarkers in blood for inflammation, and measures of brain structure and function that have been developed using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Increased understanding of the biological processes underlying how our brains age can then be used to develop better drugs and treatments.

I also have an interest in psychiatric genetics and in previous projects have studied the genetic relationship between schizophrenia and cognition.

Group members:

Lovisa Larsson, Bachelor student, spring 2023

Adil Supiyev, postdoc, 2020-2023

Elise Koch, PhD-student (main supervisor),  2018-2022
Sofia Håglin, postdoc, 2018-2020

Other:

I am a member of the Young Academy of Sweden:

https://www.sverigesungaakademi.se/ledamoter.html

Interview about my research for SVT's "Meeting with":

https://www.svtplay.se/video/35270041/mote-med-meankieli/mote-med-meankieli-sasong-2-karolina-kauppi-och-bo-lennart-uusitalo