Johanna Lempainen
Clinical lecturer
johanna.lempainen@utu.fi Department of Pediatrics, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku Unit for Rare Diseases, Turku University Hospital |
pediatrics; pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes; pediatric infections; pediatric immunology
Docent Johanna Lempainen
graduated from medical school in 2004 (University of Turku) and defended her
PhD theses on pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes in 2009. She received specialist
licence in paediatrics in 2015 and was appointed as a docent of experimental
paediatrics in 2018 (University of Turku). She is currently working as clinical
lecturer at the department of pediatrics at University of Turku and as
specialist at the Unit for Rare Diseases, Turku University Hospital. She
participates in neonatal screening for severe immunodeficiencies and in
laboratory diagnostics of immunodeficiencies. Training for subspecialty in
pediatric infections and immunodeficiencies is ongoing.
Docent Lempainen’s
thesis in 2009 focused on the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. Since then her
research work has further focused on the heterogeneity of type 1 diabetes
pathogenesis. In 2011 she worked as visiting researcher in the
BabyDiab-diabetes study group in Munich,
Germany. Her current research interests comprise the etiology of beta-cell
autoimmunity in respect of immunological, genetic and epigenetic factors and
disturbances in early microbial contacts and are a part of the prospective
Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) study. In addition, she participates
in research projects aiming at early detection of bacterial and viral
infections in infants and children in order to avoid unnecessary antibiotic
exposure. Since January 2020 docent Lempainen is the principal investigator of the Immunogenetics laboratory and PI and member of steering committee in the DIPP study at the University of Turku.
Docent Lempainen works
as clinical lecturer in pediatrics (part-time) since January 2017.
- Islet autoimmunity and progression to type 1 diabetes in the Finnish DIPP study: comparison between genetically susceptible children with and without an affected first-degree relative (2026)
- DiabetologiaPediatric Diabetes
- 22q11.2-deleetio-oireyhtymän hoito ja seuranta (2025)
- DuodecimVaccine
- Autoantibody Response Toward Chromatin in Patients With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (2025)
- Arthritis and RheumatologyEuropean Journal of ImmunologyNature Communications
- Dermal IgA is rare in Celiac Disease and relatives, and lacks Dermatitis Herpetiformis-type co-localization with Transglutaminase 3Characteristics of Type 1 Diabetes Among Patients Carrying the Protective HLA-DQB1*06:02 Allele (2025)
- Journal of Investigative DermatologyHLA
- Diabetes, Celiac, and Thyroid‐Related Autoantibodies in HLA Genotyped Ethiopian Children and Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes: A Cross‐Sectional Study (2025)
- Long-term neutralization capacity of vaccine and breakthrough infection induced SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies against omicron subvariants BA.2, XBB.1.5, and JN.1Cholestatic Epstein-Barr virus hepatitis in children with glycogenosis type IXa (2025)
- The Frequency but not the Phenotype of Circulating Peripheral T Helper Cells is Increased at Later Stages of Progression to Type 1 DiabetesDistinct cellular immune responses in children en route to type 1 diabetes with different first-appearing autoantibodies (2025)
- Finnish nationwide controlled register study found increased inpatient infections in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (2024)
- (2024) Wahrmann, Sakari; Karppinen, Sinikka; Lempainen, Johanna; Niinikoski, Harri; Peltola, Ville
- (2024)
- (2024)
- Acta Paediatrica
- Household Transmission and Clinical Features of Respiratory Tract Infections That Were SARS-CoV-2 Positive and Negative (2024)
- Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Increased Frequency of the HLA-DRB1*04:04-DQA1*03-DQB1*03:02 Haplotype Among HLA-DQB1*06:02-Positive Children With Type 1 Diabetes (2024)
- Diabetes
- Long-term COVID-19 vaccine- and Omicron infection-induced humoral and cell-mediated immunityTemporal Alterations in CD8+ T Cells During the Progression from Stage 1 to Stage 3 Type 1 Diabetes (2024)
- Frontiers in immunology
- Neonatal and early infancy antibiotic exposure is associated with childhood atopic dermatitis, wheeze and asthma (2024)
- European Journal of PediatricsHLA
- Neutralizing antibodies after the third COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare workers with or without breakthrough infection (2024)
- Communications medicine
- (2024)
- Diabetes
- The effect of early life cytomegalovirus infection on the immune profile of children (2024)
- Clinical Immunology
- The effect of type 1 diabetes protection and susceptibility associated HLA class II genotypes on DNA methylation in immune cells (2024)
- Borrelioosi (2023) Lastentaudit Saxen Harri, Lempainen Johanna



