Janna Saarela

Dr. Janna Saarela received her M.D. in 1996, her PhD in 1998 and has been a resident at the University Hospital of Oulu and the Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Public Health Institute, Finland (1998) and at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Dept. Human Genetics (1998-2000). Dr. Saarela served as Senior Researcher, Head of the Biotechnology Unit, at the National Public Health Institute and co-coordinated the Biomedicum Biochip Centre core unit, 2001- 2008. She joined the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki in 2008, where she was Head of the FIMM Technology Centre. She became Assistant Director of FIMM in 2011. Currently she is the new director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM; Professor Janna Saarela joined the Centre for Molecular Medicine (NCMM ;https://www.med.uio.no/ncmm/english/) as Director in January 2019.

She serves as a scientific expert in several international groups, such as European network on rare primary immunodeficiency, autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases (ERN RITA), and International MS Genetics Consortium (IMSGC) and is involved in European expert groups for clinical NGS sequencing and personalized medicine. Her research group concentrates on the genomics of immune disorders, especially autoimmunity and immune dysregulation, and develops methods for safe management and sharing of sensitive health data.