Professor Tuuli Lappalainen, a leading genetics researcher, is being honored by the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) with one of society’s most prestigious honorary assignments. The recognition highlights her significant scientific contributions to understanding human genetic variation and its impact on molecular processes and disease mechanisms. Dr. Lappalainen currently leads research groups at both KTH/SciLifeLab and the New York Genome Center. Her work is characterized by broad global collaborations and a strong drive to develop tools and knowledge that advance the field, themes she will highlight in her lecture at this year’s conference in Gothenburg in June.
Professor Lappalainen obtained her PhD in genetics at the University of Helsinki, followed by postdoctoral research in Geneva and Stanford. She started her own research group in 2014 at the New York Genome Center and Columbia University, and in 2021 she relocated to Sweden while maintaining a part-time appointment in New York. Alongside her research activities, she is also the Director of the National Genomics Infrastructure and Genomics Platform at SciLifeLab.
Her research focuses on understanding how genetic variants influence molecular traits, biological processes, and disease mechanisms in humans. Throughout her career, she has made major contributions to several large international research consortia in human genetics, including the GTEx Project, the 1000 Genomes Project, and the Geuvadis Consortium. These open data resources have empowered researchers across the world. Dr. Lappalainen’s research group integrates the insights from large-scale population profiling with experiments that use CRISPR and single-cell sequencing.
“We always strive to identify important biological questions in human diversity and disease, and tackle them with cutting-edge tools,” she describes.
About the Award and Conference
The ESHG Award Lecture is one of the highlights of the annual ESHG conference, which is one of the largest human genetics conferences internationally, bringing thousands of geneticists to a changing location in Europe. The ESHG Award is an honorary assignment given to a distinguished researcher in human genetics and highlights pioneering scientific achievements in the field. The 2026 ESHG conference, where Dr. Lappalainen will deliver the award lecture, is organized in Gothenburg in June 13-17.
