Kari Vienola
kari.vienola@utu.fi Office: 5. kerros ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3390-392X |
Fixational eye movements; optical coherence tomography; optical engineering; retinal imaging; functional ophthalmic imaging; optoretinography; eye tracking
I'm currently doing research as Academy Research Fellow in University of Turku and acting as a university teacher in the Master’s Degree Programme in Biomedical Imaging. Prior to starting my teaching position in 2022, I obtained my MSc in Medical Physics and Medical Engineering in 2011 from the University of Turku. I then worked in the Rotterdam Ophthalmic Institute and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for my dissertation, which I defended succesfully in January 2018. Afterwards I was a posdoctoral associate in University of Pittsburgh 2017-2019 in the lab of Dr. Ethan Rossi and postdoctoral scholar at University of California in Davis between 2019-2022 before arriving back to Finland.
My research focuses on development of new retinal imaging techniques and applying them to eyes with disease. Currently my efforts have been going into optoretinography, which is a new way to get functional measurements from the retina non-invasively. These functional responses, or optoretinograms, could be potentially used as a biomarker to detect early stages of disease when structural changes have not occured yet.
Another research interest is transforming existing imaging techniques to low-cost versions of themselves to spread the technology also to low- and middle income countries (LMICs).
Currently most of my teaching is done at MSc level in the Biomedical Imaging programme, where I am responsible teacher in several courses, the main ones being fluorescence in bioanalytical research and physical basis of medical imaging. Besides these, I am also teaching radiation safety for medical and dentistry students.
I am also actively involved in the curriculum planning, implementation and development for the Biomedical Imaging programme, where I also act as a teacher tutor for the students. To support this, I have studied university pedagogy at the University of Turku over the past few years (25 ECTS) with the intent of obtaining full 60 ECTS within the next few years.
- Investigating phase noise in velocity-based optoretinography (2026) Ophthalmic Technologies XXXVI Maddipatla, Reddikumar; Guo, Elaine; Shariatpanahi, Paria; Zawadzki, Robert J.; Jonnal, Ravi S.; Vienola, Kari V.
(Poster) - Insight into human photoreceptor function: Modeling optoretinographic responses to diverse stimuli (2025)
- Science Advances
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Progress in measurements and interpretation of ORGs acquired using full field swept-source optical coherence tomography (FF-SS-OCT) systems (2025)
- Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging
(A4 Refereed article in a conference publication ) - Clinical optoretinography for disease applications (2024) Proceedings Optica Biophotonics Congress: Biomedical Optics 2024 (Translational, Microscopy, OCT, OTS, BRAIN) Langlo, Christopher S.; Maddipatla, Reddikumar; Vienola, Kari V.; Bartuzel, Maciej M.; Pijewska, Ewelina; Zawadzki, Robert J.; Jonnal, Ravi S.
(Other publication) - Exploring optoretinographic responses of photoreceptor function in disease-affected retinas (2024)
- Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging
(B3 Non-refereed article in a conference publication) - Head stabilization apparatus for high-resolution ophthalmic imaging (2024)
- Applied Optics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Contributed Session I: Human cone response models for optoretinography with FF-SS-OCT and adaptive optics (2023)
- Journal of Vision
(Other publication) - Poster Session II: Investigating photoreceptor function in disease-affected retinas using optoretinography (2023)
- Journal of Vision
(Other publication) - Autofluorescent hyperreflective foci on infrared autofluorescence adaptive optics ophthalmoscopy in central serous chorioretinopathy (2022)
- American journal of ophthalmology: case reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Design of a radial multi-offset detection pattern for in vivo phase contrast imaging of the inner retina in humans (2022)
- Biomedical Optics Express
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Velocity-based optoretinography for clinical applications (2022)
- Optica
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Multimodal Imaging of Torpedo Maculopathy With Fluorescence Adaptive Optics Imaging of Individual Retinal Pigmented Epithelial Cells (2021) Vienola KV, Dansingani KK, Eller AW, Martel JN, Snyder VC, Rossi EA
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Near infrared autofluorescence imaging of retinal pigmented epithelial cells using 663 nm excitation (2021)
- Eye
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Simultaneous directional full-field OCT using path-length and carrier multiplexing (2021)
- Optics Express
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Density and function of actin-microdomains in healthy and NF1 deficient osteoclasts revealed by the combined use of atomic force and stimulated emission depletion microscopy (2020)
- Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Kilohertz retinal FF-SS-OCT and flood imaging with hardware-based adaptive optics (2020)
- Biomedical Optics Express
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Microstructure of the retinal pigment epithelium near-infrared autofluorescence in healthy young eyes and in patients with AMD (2020)
- Scientific Reports
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - Optoretinogram: optical measurement of human cone and rod photoreceptor responses to light (2020)
- Optics Letters
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - In vivo retinal imaging for fixational eye motion detection using a high-speed digital micromirror device (DMD)-based ophthalmoscope (2018)
- Biomedical Optics Express
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal) - In vivo retinal imaging for fixational eye motion detection using a high-speed digital micromirror device (DMD)-based ophthalmoscope (2018)
- Biomedical Optics Express
(A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal)



