Elina Sillanpää

Elina Sillanpää

Associate professor
Unit
Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences
Room number
VIV 161
Email
elina.sillanpaa@jyu.fi
Mobile
+358401429639
Postal address
Kuntoportti 5
Fields of science
315 Sport and fitness sciences
3141 Health care science

Research interests

My research group investigates gene-lifestyle-environment interactions with respect to human health, disease, disability and aging. Our special expertise is in physical activity related phenotypes, genetically controlled designs and biobank studies.

Publications

Publication
2026

Meta-analysis of DNA methylation aging signatures in 17 human tissues

Nature Aging.
Jacques, Macsue
Seale, Kirsten
Voisin, Sarah
Lysenko, Anna
Grolaux, Robin
Jones-Freeman, Bernadette
Lamon, Severine
Abeysooriya, Mandhri
Levinger, Itamar
Bauer, Carlie
Sharples, Adam P.
Heikkinen, Aino
Sillanpää, Elina
Ollikainen, Miina
Smith, Cassandra
Broatch, James R.
Zarekookandeh, Navabeh
Gillberg, Linn
Blom, Ida
Poganik, Jesse R.
Moqri, Mahdi
Gladyshev, Vadim N.
Taper, Matthew
Malecki, Cassandra
Lal, Sean
Saurat, Nathalie
Horvath, Steve
Teschendorff, Andrew
Eynon, Nir
More publications from this author

Research groups

Research group

GenActive – Elina Sillanpää's research group

We investigate genetic and lifestyle factors that predict biological aging, health, and functional capacity.

Projects

Henkilöt pyöräilevät puistossa
Project

Genetic and biological drivers of physical activity and exercise participation (GEDROPA)

Genetic background, biological mechanisms and commitment to physical activity and lifestyle interventions in different age groups
Project

Genetics, lifestyle, and health - biobank study (BioRecall)

A digital operating model for recall-based studies, utilizing the Finnish Biobank Cooperative (FINBB) OmaBiopankki platform, will be established in the project.
Project

Causal impact of sedentary lifestyle and poor physical fitness of the population on healthcare costs (SED-COST)

SED-COST study investigates causality between physical activity, physical fitness and health care costs.
Project

Polygenic Risk Scores, Physical Activity and Causality in Cardiometabolic Diseases (GenActive)

The GenActive study investigates causal relationships between genetic predisposition, physical activity, and cardiometabolic diseases.
Age-X project illustration
Project

Resetting the Aging Clock with Exercise (AGE-X)

This project investigates associations of biological aging and lifestyles, especially physical activity, utilizing genetically controlled twin designs.
Project

The role of nutrition in the prevention of common diseases

This study examines the association between nutrition habits during adolescence and adulthood with biological aging and the incidence of common diseases.
Genesis-logo
Project

Genetic and Environmental Exploration of Heterogeneity and Causality in Obesity-Physical Activity Associations (GENESIS)

The GENESIS – project investigates the complex interplay of environment, genes and lifestyle on obesity and obesity-related adverse health outcomes. By applying multiomic methods on epidemiological data, it sets the focus of a population-wide phenomenon t
tradere_picture
Project

TraDeRe (Resistance TRAining, DEtraining, and REtraining)

The TraDeRe2 project investigates intra- and inter-individual variation in resistance training responses. The aim is to identify the determinants of individual variation in resistance training, detraining and retraining.