Johanna
Lempainen
Docent, Department of Clinical Medicine
Clinical Lecturer, Institute of Biomedicine
Clinical lecturer
Contact
Areas of expertise
pediatrics
pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes
pediatric infections
pediatric immunology
Biography
Docent Johanna Lempainen
graduated from medical school in 2004 (University of Turku) and defended her
PhD theses on pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes in 2009. She received specialist
licence in paediatrics in 2015 and was appointed as a docent of experimental
paediatrics in 2018 (University of Turku). She is currently working as clinical
lecturer at the department of pediatrics at University of Turku and as
specialist at the Unit for Rare Diseases, Turku University Hospital. She
participates in neonatal screening for severe immunodeficiencies and in
laboratory diagnostics of immunodeficiencies. Training for subspecialty in
pediatric infections and immunodeficiencies is ongoing.
Teaching
Docent Lempainen works
as clinical lecturer in pediatrics (part-time) since January 2017.
Research
Docent Lempainen’s
thesis in 2009 focused on the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes. Since then her
research work has further focused on the heterogeneity of type 1 diabetes
pathogenesis. In 2011 she worked as visiting researcher in the
BabyDiab-diabetes study group in Munich,
Germany. Her current research interests comprise the etiology of beta-cell
autoimmunity in respect of immunological, genetic and epigenetic factors and
disturbances in early microbial contacts and are a part of the prospective
Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) study. In addition, she participates
in research projects aiming at early detection of bacterial and viral
infections in infants and children in order to avoid unnecessary antibiotic
exposure. Since January 2020 docent Lempainen is the principal investigator of the Immunogenetics laboratory and PI and member of steering committee in the DIPP study at the University of Turku.
Publications
Increased Frequency of the HLA-DRB1*04:04-DQA1*03-DQB1*03:02 Haplotype Among HLA-DQB1*06:02-Positive Children With Type 1 Diabetes (2024)
Diabetes
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Temporal Alterations in CD8+ T Cells During the Progression from Stage 1 to Stage 3 Type 1 Diabetes (2024)
Diabetes
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )
Distinct cellular immune responses in children en route to type 1 diabetes with different first-appearing autoantibodies (2024)
Nature Communications
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Neutralizing antibodies after the third COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare workers with or without breakthrough infection (2024)
Communications medicine
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )
Persistent T cell-mediated immune responses against Omicron variants after the third COVID-19 mRNA vaccine dose (2023)
Frontiers in Immunology
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
T cell immunity following COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with primary antibody deficiency - a 22-month follow-up (2023)
Frontiers in Immunology
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
CXADR polymorphism rs6517774 modifies islet autoimmunity characteristics and exhibits sex disparity (2023)
Frontiers in Genetics
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Childhood manifestations of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: A Finnish nationwide register-based cohort study (2023)
Acta Paediatrica
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )
Circulating metabolic signatures of rapid and slow progression to type 1 diabetes in islet autoantibody-positive children. (2023)
Frontiers in Endocrinology
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))
Finnish children carrying the high-risk HLA genotype have a 45-fold increased risk of type 1 diabetes compared to peers with neutral or protective genotypes (2023)
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice
(A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä )