Turku Bioscience is a research centre hosted jointly by University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University offering technology services and producing top research in biosciences. Riikka Lund’s Group is working under this umbrella organization. Currently a team of nine members provides research services and a team of four persons and one undergraduate student are engaged in the ongoing research projects. The aim of the research group is to increase understanding how genetic factors together with environment influence especially human neuronal development and brain health. They are approaching the complex interplay of genes and environment from the perspective of epigenetic mechanisms regulating gene activity in human cells and mediating the effects of environment on long-term health.
Riikka’s group is working with in vitro single cell models, which are the starting point in understanding molecular mechanisms of cell functions and disease development. In addition, the group is collaborating with several cohort studies using epigenetic epidemiology approach. Riikka is part of perinatal health work package under FinnBrain birth cohort study and the specific aim is to study placental tissue epigenetics in relation to maternal prenatal stress. Latest results from Lund et al. (2021) suggest that “maternal depressive symptoms during early pregnancy are associated with DNA methylation marks in placenta in genes, which are important for the development and long-term health of the brain” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34401410/). Next phase is to study whether similar marks can be detected in exposed children or did the placenta protect the fetus. Further, the group collaborates with professor of child psychiatry, Andre Sourander, to detect genetic and epigenetic factors related to treatment response among depressed mothers and children with behavioral problems.
When asking Riikka whether it was always her dream to be a researcher, she said, “My childhood dream was to become an astronaut or space scientist. During high school, biology and genetics started to interest me. Already at that age it was clear to me that I will become a scientist.” In addition, Riikka got interested in IT as an adult, and is currently a student in the Master’s degree programme in Information and Communication Technology.
In addition to the pure research work, Riikka is the Head of Finnish Functional Genomics Centre under Bioscience Turku, which belongs to the Biocenter Finland Genome-Wide Methods network. The Centre is a testing laboratory accredited by FINAS (Finnish Accreditation Service) providing next-generation sequencing services widely to researchers, healthcare sector and industry customers. For more information on the services of the Finnish Functional Genomics Centre, please visit following web page: https://bioscience.fi/services/functional-genomics/services/
In case of questions or collaboration requests, you can contact Riikka’s group:
riikka.lund@utu.fi