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Saima | Taking a leapText Ulla Kaltiala | Photo Raija Törrönen From Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’sWhat originally brought the hard-working Swede to Finland was the Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases doctoral programme, an international Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher Training Programme. Talented young researchers were invited to apply for three-year PhD positions in research groups based on the Kuopio Campus.
“Every PhD student knows it’s quite unusual to get a position which is secured for three years. I spoke with Mikko on the phone, and he told me that he had already planned some projects which would guarantee publications for me, so I agreed to the position.” “It was not such a great leap from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s, but Alzheimer’s is much more complicated, and it did take some time to get to grips with the whole field of research.” Ms Viswanathan says she really loved the work she did on her PhD project. “Now I’m taking the last course required to get the PhD diploma, which makes me feel nostalgic. It has been wonderful to sit in lectures listening to all these brilliant professors speaking not only about the course topic but also sharing anecdotes from their many years of experience. After your PhD, you don’t really get to be a student anymore.” In her thesis, she looked at the genetic and functional contribution of specific risk genes, such as the UBQLN1 gene, to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. “It was nice to be able to combine both genetics and functional studies. For me, research is about understanding how things happen. So much genetic data is being generated, and functional studies are there to make sense of it.” Unique brain bankAs fascinated as she was about the topic of her thesis, Ms Viswanathan’s next project has little to do with it. In September, she started working as a post-doc researcher in the multidisciplinary Translational Identification of Biomarkers and Therapeutic Strategies for Neurodegenerative Diseases Consortium – UEF-Brain in short. “I work with Docent Mikko Hiltunen, focusing on the epigenetic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. “ “Kuopio has one of the largest brain banks in the Nordic countries. Autopsied samples of human brain tissue are some of the rarest samples researchers can get their hands on, and I’m extremely lucky to be able to make use of this material.” “I find this job especially attractive because of the new challenges. I have done a lot of in vitro studies, but I haven’t worked with brain tissue or epigenetics before, nor with the genes we will be targeting.” “In epigenetics we basically look at the heritable patterns of gene activation and suppression. This is the next step, and hopefully it will add some new pieces to the Alzheimer puzzle.” “Since the project has just started, I’m now trying to establish protocols and methods in our lab that haven’t been used before, looking for the reagents, antibodies and kits we need.” UEF-Brain is one the university’s spearhead projects that gets strategic funding in 2011-2015. The UEF-Brain consortium is formed of seventeen research groups with 200 researchers representing different fields of expertise. “Interactive dialogue between groups is vital and various core facilities and research platforms serve the needs of many groups. You can’t be an expert at everything or do it all on your own.” Fairytale wintersOriginally from Gothenburg, Ms Viswanathan finds it comfortable living in Kuopio, which is a city of 97,000 inhabitants. “I like it because it’s small scale and extremely well organised. Services like health care and social insurance work very well, everything is within walking distance and the people are very helpful and service-minded. All officials are very understanding and eager to help you whenever you have any questions.” “And I really love the winter. Temperatures of -25 to -30°C are the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced and this is something I will take with me from Kuopio wherever I go in the future.” She lives close to the university and is a member of a local gym. “I’m very career-oriented and often work long days. But I try to work out in the evening at least three times a week. This year has been extremely hectic and stressful with all the finalising of the thesis and the organising of the dissertation, so I haven’t really had the time, but I hope that changes now that things are slowly settling down. “ |
Ms Viswanathan completed her Master’s thesis in biomedicine at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, with an emphasis on Parkinson’s disease. “My supervisor told me there was a position in the group that Docent Mikko Hiltunen was setting up in Kuopio, focusing on molecular and functional genetics of Alzheimer’s disease.”