Antti E. Seppo, Ph.D.

My short-term research interest is to develop an understanding of the factors that predispose and cause food allergies in children, and to understand predictive indicators of the severity of allergic reactions in children and adults.

Understanding of the predisposing and causative factors will help to develop strategies to prevent allergies in children. My research aims to evaluate genetic factors by applying genomic and transcriptomic techniques and environment related factors by biochemical screening of biomarkers.

Generating predictors of food allergy severity will enable better management of newly diagnosed food allergy patients. These predictors will be established by evaluating tests that measure aspects of humoral and cellular immune response in vitro, and selecting promising candidate markers for clinical evaluation.

My long-term interest is to understand the fundamental mechanisms in the developing human immune system and particularly mechanisms that upon failure cause allergic disease. This understanding will in part come from observations in the studies of allergy relevant factors, and in part from mechanistic studies involving candidate pathways of early immune system development.

Separate form allergy research my research interest also include integration of leading edge biocomputing methods into cell based assay research, especially in connection with image analysis.