Trained as an MD and PhD, Dr. Sulev Koks' research experience combines clinical medicine and biomedicine. He has studied the regulation of emotional behavior, genetics of mood disorders, genetics of rare diseases, and genomics of common diseases (psoriasis, vitiligo, Parkinson’s disease, osteoarthritis). He has generated several pre-clinical models for drug development and translational research. As PI or co-PI, he has been on several national and international grants.

Dr. Koks' current primary research focus is on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration. His lab works on the functional analysis and description of the transposable elements related to the neurodegenerative disorders. Transposable elements are responsible for the “missing heritability,” and analysis of this part of the genome helps to identify new genomic regions responsible for the development of degeneration. This is a translational approach where different cohort studies (cross-sectional, longitudinal) are combined with pre-clinical models.