Dr. Majamaa earned a medical degree and a DMSc in biochemistry from the University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland) before undertaking postdoctoral training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Majamaa later returned to the University of Oulu as a professor of molecular medicine, and later chairman of the Institute of Clinical Medicine. Dr. Majamaa has published extensively on the associations between mitochondrial genetics and neurological disease.