Miia Kivipelto

Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Geriatrics at Karolinska Institutet (KI), Center for Alzheimer Research, and senior geriatrician and Director for Research & Development of Medical Unit Aging at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Part of her Nordic-UK Brain Network (NBN) multidisciplinary research team (around 100 researchers and clinical staff) is located at University of Eastern Finland and Imperial College London (ICL), UK, where she has part time position as Professor. Her frontline research findings have been published in leading journals (330+ publications, H-index 75) and she has received numerous prestigious national and international awards.

Dr. Kivipelto’s translational research focuses on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Through epidemiological studies, Prof. Kivipelto has identified various lifestyle and vascular risk factors for dementia and interactions with genetic factors and clarified underlying mechanisms. She has developed the first tool for predicting dementia risk based on midlife risk profiles. This is still one of the few validated risk scores in the field and is in clinical use (including clinical trials). These findings paved the way to the current prevention trials.

Professor Kivipelto is the PI of the landmark FINGER Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability), which is the first large-scale trial showing that a multi-domain lifestyle-based intervention can reduce the risk of cognitive and functional impairment among at risk persons from general population. FINGER has caused a paradigm shift, i.e. cognitive decline is no longer an inevitable consequence of aging, but can be prevented with multidomain interventions. This pragmatic model is now tested and adapted worldwide, and Professor Kivipelto has launched the World Wide FINGERS network, a unique interdisciplinary network to share experiences, harmonise data, and plan joint international initiatives for the prevention of cognitive impairment/dementia (40+ countries currently involved). She is also founder of the FINGERS Brain Health Institute (www.fbhi.se) aiming to find novel solutions to promote brain health and prevent cognitive impairment and dementia.

Professor Kivipelto has also contributed to understanding of biological mechanisms underlying dementia/AD and she is actively involved in phase I-III clinical trials and is leading several international consortia. She is often invited to the the leading global dementia conferences and task forces, including the G8 Dementia Summit, WHO ministerial meeting in Global actions against dementia and dementia risk reduction guidelines, Neurology and Covid-19 Global Frorum, among others.

She has received numerous of prestigious awards, including the Ryman Prize, New Zealand (2020), Arthur C. Cherkin Award, USA (2019), Swedish Doctoral Union Alzheimer prize (2018), Neuroscientist of the Year (Finland, 2018), MetLife Foundation Major Award for Medical Research (2016), Swedish Alzheimer Research Foundation Major Award (2016), Waijlit and Eric Forsgren’s award for dementia researcher (2015), Best PI at KI award (2014) and AXA Research Award (2014), Karolinska Institutet Skandia’s Lennart Levi prize (2013), Junior Chamber International Award for Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (2011), Academy of Finland Award for Social Impact (2009).