Mika Ala-Korpela

In addition to the abovementioned positions, Prof Ala-Korpela is also an adjunct Research Professor in Systems Epidemiology at the Alfred Hospital, Monash University, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences in Melbourne, Australia (1.9.2017-).

Prof Ala-Korpela’s research focuses on the applications of modern ‘omics technologies in large-scale clinical and systems epidemiology to understand the molecular and genetic characteristics of metabolic health and disease development and to utilise these data in advancing disease risk assessment and prevention. His experimental interests are in developing and applying new high-throughput cost-effective molecular methodologies. He has broad expertise in spectral, molecular, and epidemiological data analysis with a special focus and ground-breaking contributions in multivariate statistical analyses in population stratification and risk assessment with novel applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Prof Ala-Korpela has pioneered development and applications of serum metabolomics in large-scale epidemiology and genetics. In this area he has also made wide-ranging contributions on commercialization of bioscientific innovations.

Prof Ala-Korpela’s more recent new scientific contributions are in relation to causal epidemiology and applications of metabolomics, genetics and Mendelian randomization analyses in drug research and understanding the effects of drug targets on systemic metabolism. He also recently spent almost 2 years at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute (Melbourne, Australia) specialising in cutting-edge mass spectrometry lipidomics. He is thus one of the rare scientists having advanced knowledge on both key molecular methodologies in population metabolomics, namely nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. He is an internationally renowned scientist in molecular epidemiology and is repeatedly invited to give scientific presentations (~120 over the last 15 years), assist and review grants for major funding bodies (e.g., UK Wellcome Trust & EU) and review scientific contributions for leading scientific journals (e.g., for various Nature-journals and various leading clinical journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation and European Heart Journal).

Prof Ala-Korpela has published ~270 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, many of them in his lead or co-lead. A marked portion of his papers has been published in the most appreciated scientific journals in various medical fields, encapsulating his multidisciplinary expertise in the area or molecular and medical biosciences. These include contributions, e.g., in Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Science Advances, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, European Heart Journal, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Lancet Healthy Longevity, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Clinical Chemistry, Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Neurology, Hepatology, British Journal of Pharmacology, Cell Systems, Molecular Systems Biology, PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine.

He is one of the four shared co-leaders for a genome-wide association study titled Genome-wide characterization of circulating metabolic biomarkers, recently published in Nature (2024 Apr;628(8006):130-138. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07148-y). This study found numerous associations between blood biomarkers and diseases, and identified over 400 genomic regions that affect metabolic regulation. Many of these findings were completely new. The study found that a large proportion of the genomic regions related to metabolism are also linked to the risk of developing various diseases. The new research results help to detail the biological processes through which blood markers are linked to diseases. The results can be used, for example, in the development of new medications and in clarifying the cause-and-effect relationships between metabolic biomarkers and diseases. The combination of 33 population datasets enabled the study in 136,000 volunteers. Six Finnish population cohorts were in a key role in the study, including the Northern Finland Birth Cohorts, housed at the University of Oulu. Additional data were used from the UK Biobank, which allowed confirmative analyses in 120,000 participants. In this study 233 metabolic biomarkers from blood samples were analysed and their connections to over 13 million genetic factors were examined. “This study is a splendid demonstration of the central importance of new research methods - in this case, both metabolic and genetic analyses - and their multidisciplinary combination to develop science and to reveal the intricacies of nature,” Ala-Korpela says.

Since 2017 he has been an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Epidemiology (IF 7.7, JUFO 3) and he has published 25 papers in the journal.

His H-index is 83 and he has 74 papers with more than or equal to 100 citations; his total number of citations is over 28,000 with a steep increase in annual citations in recent years, i.e., around 3,000 citations a year since 2021. These are obvious signs of broad scientific relevance of his publications in biomedicine.

In a recent bibliometric analysis on metabolomics in coronary artery disease research, Prof Ala-Korpela was classified as the most productive author (Front. Cardiovasc. Med. 9, 804463, 2022): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2022.804463/full

Degrees

• Title of Docent: 1997, Biological NMR, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
• Doctor of Philosophy (Physics), 1994, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. Ph.D.-thesis, titled Applications of 1H NMR spectroscopy to human blood plasma and lipoprotein research, and shared by the Dept of Physics and the Dept of Internal Medicine
• Licentiate of Philosophy (Physics), 1991, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
• Master of Science (Physics), 1988, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
• Bachelor of Science (Physics), 1988, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

Previous work experience (key positions during the last 10 years)

• Visiting Professor, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Valencia, Spain. A few months on site during the time period from 1.6.2022 to 31.12.2023.
• Senior Research Fellow, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia: 1.1.2019– (5-year contract at NHMRC); resigned 31.8.2019 to return to Finland
• Head of Systems Epidemiology, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Population Health, Melbourne, Australia: 1.1.2018– (5-year contract); resigned 31.8.2019 to return to Finland
• Professor of Computational Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol Medical School, Population Health Science, Bristol, UK: 1.1.2013–31.5.2019 (20% duties to provide experimental and theoretical expertise in multidisciplinary metabolomics at the UK Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit) - continues as an honorary position
• Adjunct Research Professor in Systems Epidemiology, Monash University, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Melbourne, Australia (5-year position, 2nd term till 31.08.2027)
• Visiting Professor of Omics Sciences, Central South University College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Changsha, China: 8.8.2010–7.8.2013
• Visiting Professor, Imperial College London, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, London, UK: 1.1.–31.7.2012

Research funding / 3 Most recent research grants

• Since 2009 Prof Ala-Korpela has raised internationally over 7.7 M€ research funding as a PI and, in addition, over 50 M€ as a co-PI or as a co-applicant (biggest grants in the UK).
• A research grant of 50,000 € from the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research for Urine metabolomics in cardiometabolic research (1.6.2024-31.5.2025)
• A research grant of 498,597 € from the Academy of Finland for Quantitative high-throughput urine metabolomics (1.9.2023-31.8.2027)
• A research grant of 40,000 € from the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research for Urine metabolomics in cardiometabolic research (1.6.2023-31.5.2024)

Teaching merits

• Epidemiology and Biomedical Data Science Master’s programme, University of Oulu, Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology course (2021–)
• Metabolomics in Epidemiology Short Course at the University of Bristol (2016)
• A Popular Science/Course Book in Finnish by M. Ala-Korpela, S. Inkinen, T. Suna: On cybernetics and human-machine interaction, 301 pages, Oy Finn Lectura Ab 2007.
• Recognition for Teaching Excellence: 2006 at the Helsinki University of Technology
• In a research focused professorship since 2009. Before that extensive teaching duties at the University of Oulu (1987-1991; supervising laboratory and theoretical exercises), the Technical University of Lappeenranta (2001-2005; lecturing multiple courses), and the Helsinki University of Technology (2004-2008; lecturing multiple courses).

Some selected (rather recent) academic merits

• External reviewer and opponent for Ph.D.-thesis: Teeko Li, Exploring causes of cardiovascular disease beyond the major risk factors, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (26.8.2022)
• Invited member of a review panel for a Professorship in Computational Medicine, Faculty of Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering, Graz Univ of Technology, Austria, 2019
• Ad hoc reviewer for Wellcome Trust UK, Biomedical Resource, Technology Development & Multi-User Equipment Grants, 2015
• Ad hoc reviewer for ERA PerMed, Joint Call for “Research projects on personalised medicine – smart combination of pre-clinical and clinical research with data and ICT solutions”, 2018. ERA PerMed (2017-2022) is an ERA-Net Cofund Action on Personalised Medicine, supported by 31 partners of 22 countries and cofunded by the European Commission. It promotes excellence & reinforces the competitiveness of European players.
• Themed Issue Editor: A Themed Issue on Metabolic Phenotyping in Epidemiology in the International Journal of Epidemiology; published 2016
• Lead Guest Editor: Special Issue on Clinical and Epidemiological Metabonomics in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology; published 2011
• Invited participation: A position paper on circulating biomarkers in atherosclerotic vascular disease by the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology; published in the European Heart Journal (36, 2635, 2015)
• Ad hoc reviewer in various scientific journals, e.g.,: Molecular Systems Biology, PLoS Computational Biology, Metabolomics, Analytical Chemistry, Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, Physiological Genomics, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, Circulation, Statistics in Medicine, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Reviews Nephrology, American Journal of Epidemiology, International Journal of Epidemiology, Clinical Chemistry, Diabetologia, New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation Research, Nature Communications, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Nature Medicine, European Heart Journal. In total some 100 manuscripts reviewed.
• Internationally leading role in epidemiological metabolomics: Prof. Ala-Korpela was invited to consult in epidemiological metabolomics strategy in the UK by the Wellcome Trust (a specialist meeting in London on Nov 2013) and in relation to this he served as a Scientific Organising Committee Member for a Hinxton Retreat (a high-quality invitation-only strategic scientific meeting of around 40 experts) on Defining the UK Roadmap for Biomedical Metabolic Phenotyping, held on 10-11 Oct 2016 in Cambridge, UK.
• Some 120 invited talks, including multiple plenaries & keynotes in large international meetings (2006–). For example, an Opening Keynote (The role of multiple new ‘omics data in epidemiology and public health) at the Hong Kong Public Health Forum 2015, a Keynote (Metabolomics in precision medicine) at the HandsOn: Biobanks meeting in Milan, Italy (2015), and a Plenary (Metabolite and lipid profiling in cardiovascular risk assessment) at the 25th European Meeting on Hypertension & Cardiovascular Protection in Milan (2015).