Professor Hyppönen is the Director of the  at the University of South Australia Cancer Research Institute. She was recruited to the University of South Australia as the Professor in Nutritional and Genetic Epidemiology in 2013, following 12 years at the University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (London, UK).
She also holds appointments as a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and as an Adjunct Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Tampere, Finland. Professor Hyppönen has an interdisciplinary academic background, with academic qualifications in epidemiology, medical statistics, nutrition and public health.
Professor Hyppönen has a H-factor of 83, and her work has been cited over 43,000 times.  She has authored more than 200 high-profile refereed publications and several book chapters. She leads the which has a focus on using genetic tools to inform on dietary and lifestyle guidelines for optimal health. She has a long-term research interest in life-course and intergenerational epidemiology, and an extensive track record in gene and risk factor discovery. Her current interests are related to implementing phenomewide analyses and systems epidemiology approaches to establish effective strategies for disease prediction and prevention.