Prof. Tolppanen’s group utilizes routinely collected data to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, but also to conduct neuroepidemiological studies on, for example, risk factors of Parkinson’s disease. Her group applies a variety of methods, ranging from traditional statistical methods to machine learning. Her work has provided important insights into drug utilization and associated adverse events in people with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as risk factors of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

She is an experienced neuroepidemiologist with a multidisciplinary background including an MSc in biochemistry and molecular bioinformatics and a PhD in genetic epidemiology. She has over 100 original articles in international peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Topllanen works in close collaboration with clinicians and is keen on developing novel approaches for studying the risk factors of diseases with long latency periods.