Katja Karppinen

Katja Karppinen is an Associate Professor in Plant Biotechnology and Bioenergy at the Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She serves as group leader for the Microorganisms and Plants research group and co-leader of the ABSORB (Advanced Plant Phenotyping and Hyperspectral Imaging) project, focusing on Arctic plant biomass analysis and sustainable energy applications.

• Education: MSc (2002) and PhD (2010) in Plant Physiology from the University of Oulu, Finland; Docent in Plant Molecular Biology (2018).
• Research Interests: Her work investigates enzymatic mechanisms in bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) fruit softening, transcriptional regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis, hyperspectral imaging for plant phenotyping, and plant cell wall-degrading enzyme discovery for bioenergy applications.
• Article Trends: Recent publications focus on characterizing cellulases and pectinases from bilberries for biomass processing, hyperspectral imaging techniques for root systems, and regulatory mechanisms of anthocyanin biosynthesis under environmental factors like light and temperature.
• Labs & Teams: She contributes to the ARC-Arctic Centre for Sustainable Energy and leads the Microorganisms and Plants research group at UiT, Tromsø, Norway.