Dr Marika Kaakinen
Academic and research departments
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Biosciences and Medicine.Biography
I have an MSc degree in statistics (2006) and a PhD in genetic and life-course epidemiology (2013) from the University of Oulu, Finland. Before joining the University of Surrey in April 2019, I worked as a Marie Curie Fellow (2014-206), followed by a post as a Research Associate (2016-2019) at Imperial College London, UK.
I develop and apply statistical analysis methods for genomic/omics research. My work addresses the risk factors of complex human traits, including type 2 diabetes. I work with various types of omics data, including metabolomics, proteomics, gut microbiome and whole-genome sequencing data. I have developed/contributed to the following software tools: MARV and SCOPA. I have also contributed to numerous GWAS within several consortia, including DIAGRAM (DIAbetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis), MAGIC (Meta-Analyses of Glucose and Insulin related traits), ENGAGE (European Network of Genomic and Genetic Epidemiology), EGG (Early Growth Genetics) and SSGAC (Social Science Genetic Association Consortium).
Areas of specialism
Statistical genetics;
Multi-omics data
My qualifications
Affiliations and memberships
Research
Research interests
My overall research interest is to develop and apply statistical methodology to better understand complex human traits in order to improve prevention and treatment of diseases. I have contributed to numerous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of several complex traits, leading to the discovery of thousands of genetic variants associated with these traits. More recently, I have developed software for multi-phenotype GWAS to improve power for the analysis as well as to discover potential pleiotropic and other multi-phenotype effects. I am keen on finding new ways to utilise the huge amounts of data that are generated constantly, by applying methods, such as machine learning or methods based on already published summary statistics.
Research collaborations
Northern Finland Birth Cohorts, University of Oulu, Finland.
Estonian Genome Center, University of Tartu, Estonia.
University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
Stremble Ventures, AVVA Pharmaceuticals and Europan University Cyprus, Cyprus.
Imperial College London, UK.
Indicators of esteem
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Honours and awards
2016, Young Investigator Award Finalist, International Congress of Human genetics, Kyoto, Japan
2015, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)/Charles J. Epstein Trainee Award for Excellence in Human Genetics Research – Semifinalist, Baltimore, USA
2015, Young Investigator Award Candidate, European Society of Human Genetics Meeting, Glasgow, UK
2014, Dissertation Excellence Award, the best PhD thesis of the year at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Finland
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Grants and Fellowships
2014-2016, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, Principal investigator
2018, Albert Renold Travel Fellowship from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes
2017, Genes Travel Award
2016, Athena SWAN Early Career Researcher Travel Award
2016, European Society of Human Genetics Travel Award
2015, Student Fellowship for the 4th Sardinian Summer School: From GWAS to Function
2011, Travel grant from the University of Oulu graduate school (UniOGS)
2011, Travel grant from the University of Oulu graduate school (UniOGS)
2010, Travel grant from the University of Oulu graduate school (UniOGS)
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Invited talks and interviews
2019, Invited talk: “Machine Learning in Multi-Omics Data to Assess Longitudinal Predictors of Glycaemic Health”, 7th Nordic-Baltic Biometric Conference (NBBC), Vilnius, Lithuania
2018, Invited talk: “Multi-phenotype, multi-omics and machine learning”, weekly seminar of the Mathematical Statistics Institute, University of Tartu, Estonia
2015, Invited talk: “Multi-phenotype analyses”, EAGLE Consortium meeting, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2014, Invited talk: “Measuring Life Course”, EurHealthAgeing Summer School, London, UK
2013, Invited talk: “What did I need from my supervisor in order to publish internationally?”, seminar for doctoral thesis supervisors, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
2013, Invited talk: “Statistical analysis of genetic data: from candidate gene approach to GWAS”, Genetics Seminar, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
2013, Radio interview on genetic variants associated with educational attainment (research published in Science, PMID:23722424), Oulu Radio, Finland
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Peer reviewing
Grants:
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (Vernieuwingsimpuls Innovational Research Incentives Scheme)
Medical Research Council (MRC) Research Grant
Journals:
European Journal of Human Genetics (EJHG)
International Journal of Epidemiology (IJE)
International Journal of Obesity (IJO)
Scientific Reports
Genes
Molecular Biology Reports (MOLE)
Frontiers in Genetics
My teaching
Previous teaching experience
2016-present, Lecturer and course organiser of Introduction to the statistical analysis of genome-wide association studies, Imperial College London, London, UK
2014-present, Lecturer in MSc in Human Molecular Genetics, Imperial College London, London, UK
2016-present, Lecturer in Omics module for the MSc in Genomic Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
2013, Teaching assistant in Basic Course in Statistics, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
2011-2013, Teaching assistant in Life course modelling, Imperial College London, UK
2012, Teaching assistant in Making a poster presentation, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
2015-present, Ms Mila Desi Anasanti, PhD project, Imperial College London: Dissecting the Multi-Phenotype Effects For Cardiometabolic Traits in Highly Dimensional Whole Genome and Omics Data through Usage of Multivariate Analytical Methods.
2018-present, Ms Priya Mann, MSc project, Imperial College London: Dissecting the effects of glucose metabolism subtypes in regulation of blood pressure.
2019-present, Mr Jared Maina, MSc project, Imperial College London: Dissecting genetics subtypes of co-morbid depression in type 2 diabetes.
Completed postgraduate research projects I have supervised
2018, Ms Laurie Prelot, MSc thesis, Imperial College London: Multi-phenotype epigenome-wide association study of cardiometabolic traits.
2018, Ms Edita Pileckyte, MSc thesis, Imperial College London: Multi-phenotype genome-wide association study of protein levels in individuals with pulmonary hypertension.
2017, Ms Kelsey Gibbs, MSc thesis, Imperial College London: Metabolomic signatures of cardiometabolic health over time.
2016, Mr Longda Jiang, MSc thesis, Imperial College London: Dissecting genetic relationships between random and fasting glucose levels, type 2 diabetes and other glycaemic traits using large-scale genome-wide association data.
2015, Ms Annique Claringbould, MSc thesis, Imperial College London: Multi-phenotype analysis of cardiometabolic traits through usage of multivariate analytical methods
My publications
Additional publications
A full list of my publications can be found under my Google Scholar profile https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MBCp0McAAAAJ&hl=fi