PhD Dissertations

PhD Dissertations
Adrien Gigliotta, M.Sc. (Neurobiology), will defend his doctoral dissertation
"Stress-induced anxiety and myelin plasticity: insights from in vivo and in vitro studies."
The public examination will take place June 14th, at 1 pm, in Biomedicum, Haartmatninkatu 8, Lecture Hall 1. 
It will also be possible to attend the defense remotely via Unitube following this link: https://video.helsinki.fi/unitube/live-stream.html?room=l37

Prof. Juan Pablo Lopez will serve as the opponent. 

The work has been supervised by professor Iiris Hovatta, serving as the custos.

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Johanna Liuhanen, MA (psychology), will defend her doctoral dissertation
"Genetic liability to psychiatric disorders in early childhood; phenotypic effects
and differing sensitivity to environmental influences" on 5th June 2024 at 12 noon.

The public examination will take place at the Main building of University of Helsinki, Small hall (Fabianinkatu 33, 4th floor).


Associate Professor Katherine Musliner from Aarhus University will serve as the opponent, and Professor Tiina Paunio as the custos.

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Teemu Miettinen, PsM, Faculty of Medicine, Doctoral Program in Clinical Research, will defend his doctoral dissertation "Pain phenotypes, sleep problems and other comorbidities in patients with persistent pain".

The public examination will take place in Women hostpital, Seth Wichman lecture hall on 15.10.2022 10.00 - 18.00.

Docent Rikard Wicksell, Karolinska Institute will serve as the opponent.

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MA (psychology) Risto Halonen will defend his doctoral dissertation "Sleep and its oscillatory characteristics in overnight learning - what is the role of plasticity genes BDNF and COMT?" 

The public examination will take place in the University of Helsinki main building, lecture hall U3032 (entrance via Unioninkatu 34) on 30th of August 2022 at 13:00.

Professor Björn Rasch, University of Fribourg, will serve as the opponent. 

The work has been supervised by professor Anu-Katriina Pesonen, serving as the Custos.

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Antti-Jussi Ämmälä, LL will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "PRENATAL, CHILDHOOD, AND ADOLESCENCE SLEEP AND STRESS - Association with DNA methylation and telomere length"

in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, on 28 January 2022 at 13:00.

Professor Dr Christine Heim, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, will serve as the opponent, and Professor Tiina Paunio as the custos.

The dissertation is also available in electronic form in Helda.

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Sanna Selinheimo, PsM will defend the doctoral dissertation entitled "Components of subjective health complaints - Evidence from prospective cohort study and randomized controlled trial" 

in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki on 11 June 2021 at 12:15.

The public examination will take place at the following address: Live stream.

Professor Lisbeth Frostholm, Aarhus University, will serve as the opponent, and Professor Tiina Paunio as the custos.

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Dissertation defence of Alexandra Lahtinen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki
"DNA methylation pattern for insufficient sleep and recovery".

The public examination is arranged via Zoom in Biomedicum Hall 3, Friday March 5th 2021, at 13:15.

Opponent: Christian Benedict, PhD, Associate Professor
Custos: Professor Tiina Paunio

The defense will be held in English.

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Dissertation defence of Mikaela Laine, MSc (Neuroscience), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki
"Myelin plasticity in mouse resilience and susceptibility to psychosocial stress – implications for anxiety disorders".

The public examination can be attended via Zoom Faculty of Medicine, Biomedicum, lecutre room 3, Friday January 15th 2021, at 13:00.

Opponent: Professor Jaanus Harro, MD PhD, Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu.

Custos: Professor Juha Partanen, PhD, University of Helsinki.

The defense will be held in English.

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Dissertation defence of Marko Rosenholm, MSc (Pharm.), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki
"Studies on the developmental and antidepressant-like effects of anesthetics".

The public examination is arranged via Zoom in LS B2 (Raisio hall) of the Forest Sciences building, Latokartanonkaari 7 in the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, on October 30th 2020 at 12 o’clock noon.

Professor Laszlo Vutskits from University of Geneva will serve as the Opponent.

Tomi Rantamäki, Custos.

The defense will be held in English.

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Dissertation defence of Sonja Sulkava, "Genetic background for job-related exhaustion and its link to Alzheimer's disease"

Friday October 23rd 2020, at 12:15.

Sonja Sulkava
Department of Psychiatry and SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki and
Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Genomics and Biobank, Department of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare

Opponent: Professor Till Rönneberg
Professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich
President of the World Federation of Societies for Chronobiology, WFSC


Custos and supervisor: Professor Tiina Paunio.

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Iiris Hovatta group / Marie Mennesson 


On the 28th of June, which also happens to be the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, we were joyed and proud to witness the PhD defense of our esteemed colleague Marie Mennesson. Marie defended her thesis titled ”Kainate receptor auxiliary subunits NETO1 and NETO2 in anxiety and fear-related behaviors”, and PD Dr Carsten Wotjak served as the opponent in what was a fascinating and accessible debate. With her post-doctoral position set to start in the very near future, we congratulate Marie for her success in the Neurogenomics lab, and Marie’s future co-workers for gaining such a talented, hard-working and supportive colleague!