Kai Kaarniranta - Biography#

Kai Kaarniranta is a professor and chief physician of ophthalmology in UEF and Kuopio University Hospital.

Kai Kaarniranta also graduated for MSc in biotechnology. He leads the UEF Ocular Drug Development Laboratory). Kai Kaarniranta's research group comprises (at present) 11 PhD students, 5 post-doc fellows, one technician and one study nurse. Ophthalmology research belongs to the UEF Drug Tech consortium that was recently ranked on the highest research level in UEF on international evaluation (https://www.uef.fi/en/reasearch-community) .

Kai Kaarniranta is a group leader in GeneCellNano Flagship consortium (https://www.genecellnano.fi), he is also the leader and founder FinnGen Ophthalmology Expert Group. Kai Kaarniranta is the current Editor-in-Chief of Acta Ophthalmologica since 2020.

Kai Kaarniranta is the past president of the European Association of Vision and Eye Research (EVER). He has published more than 400 PubMed publications that have been cited more than 50 000 times. His H-index is 96. Kaarniranta lab) provides different cell culture models including patient-derived stem cells, gene modified animal models and large AMD-related patient material. Kai Kaarniranta has been PI or sub-PI over 20 clinical trials from phase I-IV for dry eye syndrome, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma or AMD: Kai Kaarniranta can lead a research team working in both basic science and clinical trials. Recent nomination to UEMS/EBO organization covers educational programs in ophthalmology and medicine.