Teele Palumaa, MD, PhD

Teele Palumaa, MD, PhD, is a clinician-scientist and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow jointly appointed at Emory University (Atlanta, USA) and the University of Tartu (Estonia). She obtained her medical degree from the University of Tartu and completed her PhD at the University of Oxford in the UK, where she investigated the circadian rhythms of the retina. Following two of a three-year ophthalmology residency program at the East Tallinn Central Hospital in Estonia, she embarked on postdoctoral training between Emory University and the University of Tartu.

Her current research focuses on the interplay between circadian rhythms and refractive development, combining population-based biobank data with experimental models. She integrates techniques from epidemiology, molecular biology, and omics analyses to uncover genetic and environmental mechanisms influencing ocular development. At the University of Tartu, she works with Estonian Biobank data, focusing on eye diseases and sleep phenotypes.

Her broader research interests span ocular genetics and multi-omics, sleep and circadian biology, and myopia risk factors and treatment.