Lea Mikkola
 PhD

Single-cell Immunogenomics

lea.mikkola@utu.fi



Office5024


ORCID identifierhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5315-7410

LinkedIn


Publons


Areas of expertise
quantitative genetics; computational genomics; single-cell transcriptomics; spatial transcriptomics; osteoarthritis; hip dysplasia.

Research community or research topic
InFLAMES Research Flagship and Research Council of Finland.

Biography

I'm a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Single-cell Immunogenomics Research Group, Turku Bioscience, University of Turku, Finland (https://bioscience.fi/research/single-cell-genomics-immunology/profile/). 

I'm the Principal Investigator of the project "Complex Molecular Etiology and Cellular Landscape of Hip Osteoarthritis (OASEQ)" (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05278520).
My fields of expertise are computational genomics, quantitative genetics, and single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. I do research both in bioinformatics and wet lab.
I have been teaching bioinformatics at the University of Turku since 2021.

I have been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship of the InFLAMES Research Flagship Center, University of Turku and Åbo Akademi in 2021, and a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of Research Council of Finland (formerly Academy of Finland) in 2022.
I'm affiliated with both the InFLAMES Research Flagship and the Research Council of Finland.



Research

In my primary ongoing research project I explore the molecular etiology and cellular landscape of hip joint osteoarthritis (OA), especially focusing on the role of immune responses in OA.

In my other ongoing project I apply single-cell and spatial omics approaches to elucidate the role of immune responses in the development of atherosclerosis, aiming to identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions. This project is at its end-stage.

I'm collaborating in some other projects as a computational geneticist; designing, running and/or supervising the data analyses.



Teaching

My main interests in teaching are bioinformatics and experimental design.

Teaching at the University of Turku:

-BIOL3050, "Bioinformatics for Biologists", first half of every spring semester since 2021.

-FYGE5430, "Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and its Applications", second half of spring semester 2023.


Teaching at the University of Helsinki:

-Clinical Genetics (2020)

-Introduction to Research in Veterinary Medicine (2014, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)

-Comparative Anatomy and Physiology (2014, 2015)


Teaching at other universities:

-Experimental design for high-throughput technologies, Karolinska Institutet (2022, 2023).

-Bioinformatics Analysis and Visualisation of Medical Genomics Data, University of Tokyo and Karolinska Institutet, Tokyo, Japan, March 2023; RIKEN Research Institute and Karolinska Institutet in Yokohama Japan October 2023, and in Stockholm Sweden in September 2024.


I have completed 10 ECTS of Medical pedagogy studies at the University of Turku in 2024.




Publications


Last updated on 2025-15-01 at 10:42