Olli Kärkkäinen

Circular heatmap of placenta metabolites. Identified metabolites with p-value below 0.05 in any comparison between the study groups are shown. CONT = Control group, EE = Early Exposure group, i.e., placental samples from pregnancies where the woman positive cotinine levels in 1st trimester serum samples but no cotinine in the placental sample, and CE = Continuous Exposure group, i.e., placental samples from pregnancies where both the 1st trimester and placental sample had high cotinine levels. Z-scores are shown for each group, and Cohen’s d effect sizes are shown for each group comparison. *, p-value < 0.05. Metabolite of AALA, metabolite of amino acid local anesthetic; EDAB, ethyl-4-dimethylaminobenzoate; t⁶A, N⁶ threonylcarbamoyladenosine, 17-OHP, 17α-Hydroxyprogesterone.

🚨New preprint!

Masvosva et al. An exploratory investigation of placental metabolomic alterations associated with maternal smoking

doi.org/10.64898/202...

What Alcohol Does to the Body From the moment you take a sip, drinking starts to influence your biology. Here’s an inside look.

🎉 RSA Members in the news 📰 Tom Kash and Bob Messing contributed to this NYT article on how alcohol impacts the body

🔗https://nyti.ms/4kLkiLG

An exploratory investigation of placental metabolomic alterations associated with maternal smoking https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.26346613v1

You still have 3 days to apply to the postdoc positions available in my lab 😀
🔬Come and work with us 🔬

Huge thanks to all co-authors, Retu Haikonen, Teemu Gunnar, Marko Lehtonen, Leea Keski-Nisula ja Jaana Rysä. And to funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

This indicates that tobacco smoking during pregnancy is associated with long lasting alterations in the metabolism and that many of these alterations are not reversed back to normal after discontinuation of smoking. This emphasises the need to quit smoking before pregnancy or early during pregnancy.

Simplified, our main finding was that many alterations in the placental metabolite profiles were similar between early exposure and continuous exposure groups, when compared to controls.

We identified cases with continued exposure (cotinine in both 1st trimester and placental samples) and early exposure (cotinine in 1st trimester but not in placental samples) and non-exposed controls.

Alterations in the Plasma Metabolome Associated With Maternal Smoking During the First Trimester and Foetal Growth Tobacco smoking during pregnancy has been associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes like low birth weight. This study determined changes in the circulating metabolome linked to maternal s...

Here doctoral researcher Wadzanai Masvosva continued to study effects of smoking during pregnancy. We did a metabolomics analysis of placental samples from smoking exposed pregnancies identified in our previous publication on 1st trimester blood samples (Masvosva et al.
doi.org/10.1111/bcpt... )

Circular heatmap of placenta metabolites. Identified metabolites with p-value below 0.05 in any comparison between the study groups are shown. CONT = Control group, EE = Early Exposure group, i.e., placental samples from pregnancies where the woman positive cotinine levels in 1st trimester serum samples but no cotinine in the placental sample, and CE = Continuous Exposure group, i.e., placental samples from pregnancies where both the 1st trimester and placental sample had high cotinine levels. Z-scores are shown for each group, and Cohen’s d effect sizes are shown for each group comparison. *, p-value < 0.05. Metabolite of AALA, metabolite of amino acid local anesthetic; EDAB, ethyl-4-dimethylaminobenzoate; t⁶A, N⁶ threonylcarbamoyladenosine, 17-OHP, 17α-Hydroxyprogesterone.

🚨New preprint!

Masvosva et al. An exploratory investigation of placental metabolomic alterations associated with maternal smoking

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Metabolomic insights: LC–MS profiling of human placental tissue from SSRI-treated pregnancies #EurJMedRes link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Everyone knows countries go to war over land, religion, or power.

Sweden and Denmark also went to war over:

-> titles
-> logos
-> toll fees
-> seating arrangements
-> vibes

Here are the absurd reasons, with years, even though none of this seems like actual reality.

1/X

a man wearing a beanie says " yeah science " Alt: Jeffie (ok Jessie) Pinkman from Breaking Bad wearing a beanie says " yeah science" and points. Hey did anyone watch Pluribus? Sick show, we Stan Vince Gilligan. I bet his middle name is Jeff.

Bluesky is definitely a place for science, research and citing papers. We hope it will continue to close the gap as rapidly as it has with legacy social media. Research, science and dank memes need many homes on the internet.

Bluesky provides one of the more inviting ones.

Happy New Year.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas (in several languages too 😉), and a wonderful New Year ahead! 🥂 🎆

Oral nicotine pouch use in Great Britain: a repeat cross-sectional study, 2020–25 Nicotine pouch use has risen in Great Britain, primarily driven by sharp increases among young people, especially young men. Most users also smoked or vaped, and a growing proportion of smokers used p...

An independent survey confirmed the increase of nicotine pouch use in young people in the UK, with frequent dual use together with smoking and vaping.

ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia? My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re…

I just published: ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia?

My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.

medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...

Kirjapino, päällimmäisenä kirja Kleopatrasta

Villa Lanten ystävien loppuvuoteen kuuluu kiinnostavia webinaareja antiikin merkkihenkilöistä. Ensin vuorossa Kleopatra, johon meidät tutustuttaa dos. Jaakkojuhani Peltonen 18.11. Tervetuloa mukaan!
www.villalantenystavat.fi?page_id=249

Starting today, we’re excited to introduce the EMN Committee members for 2024/2025. It’s going to be an amazing year, and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on! #EMN #MetSoc #Metabolomics #EarlyCareer #STEM #ECR

Interesting new paper on using multi-omics data-analysis methods in integrative holo-omics data-analysis. We were happy to contribute to the metabolomics part.

Congrats @jennymerkesvik.bsky.social‬ for the excellent work!

Interesting new analysis of ADHD meds in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: reduced risk of psychosis with atomoxetine and reduced risk for somatic hospitalizations with lisdexamphetamine.

Higher somatic hospitalization with polytherapy, no other negative safety signals. #psychiatry #medsky

Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

New publication!

Luykx et al. Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. doi.org/10.1038/s413...

#ADHD #schizophrenia

Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

New publication!

Luykx et al. Long term safety of ADHD medication in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. doi.org/10.1038/s413...

#ADHD #schizophrenia

We were able to get good metabolite profiles from microscopically small chicken gut samples. And show metabolite profile effects of Salmonella infection in different parts of the gut (central lumen, mucosal lumen or host tissue) and that synbiotic treatment can alleviate some of these changes.

Happy Olli presenting a poster in the Metabolomics 2025 conference

Today in the #MetSoc2025 conference, I was presenting a poster about the microsample global metabolomics method development we have been doing in the 3D'omics project at Afekta Technologies !

Heading to #Metabolomics2025? Here are some quick tips:
✅ Prague Congress Centre is easy to reach by public transport
✅ It can get warm – pack a water bottle
✅ Conference essentials: poster, laptop, and charger
✅ Check out the full agenda here: tinyurl.com/4vudznw8
#Prague2025 #EMN #ConferenceTips

PID Litacka - Apps on Google Play Official transport application of Prague integrated transport system (PID)

To everyone heading to #Metabolomics2025 in Prague, I recommend installing the Prague public transport app. It's extremely helpful!
play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Metabolic Alterations in Human Post‐Mortem Frontal Cortex and Cerebrospinal Fluid Associated With High Levels of Nicotine Metabolite Cotinine A metabolic profile associated with high levels of the nicotine metabolite cotinine was measured from human postmortem frontal cortex and cerebrospinal fluid samples using non-targeted metabolomics. ....

Just in time for Midsummer festives and next weeks Metabolomics conference, two new articles were published!

Masvosva et al. Metabolic Alterations in Human Post-Mortem Frontal Cortex and Cerebrospinal Fluid Associated With High Levels of Nicotine Metabolite Cotinine: doi.org/10.1111/adb....

...

Thank you!

For the human post-mortem study, unfortunately the ethical approval does not allow for public sharing of the data.

For the pig heart study, there is a plan for public release of the metabolomics data of also other analysed organs in the near future.

Large Midsummer festive fire

And of course we also celebrated the Midsummer!

... And a first first author paper for talented doctoral researcher Reta Haikonen: Blueprint of the distinct metabolite profiles of healthy pig heart chambers:
doi.org/10.1016/j.jm...