Docent Nina Atanasova is the Principal Investigator of the Aerovirology research group. She is a microbiologist specialized in virology, atmospheric microbiology and microbiology of extreme environments.
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Professor Emeritus M. Romantschuk prepared his PhD thesis in molecular virology, in particular, early steps in virus penetration using the bacteriophage phi6 as the model organism. During a post doctoral period he switched to the study of molecular plant-microbe interaction, with Pseudomonas syringae as the main target organism. Later on, the MPMI work has continued but was complemented with environmental biotechnology as holder of a professorship at the University of Helsinki in this area. He now leads a group of ca 10 scientists. He is a member of The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, and he has published over 160 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific periodicals.
Svetlana Sofieva-Rios, PhD, is a researcher in the Aerosols and Climate Group at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and a visiting researcher at the University of Helsinki. She earned her PhD from the University of Helsinki with a thesis titled Ice nucleation potential of infective viruses from marine sources, which focused on physical factors influencing sea-spray aerosol formation and the ice-nucleating properties of viruses. Her work focuses on the ice nucleation of microorganisms, the species composition of atmospheric bioaerosols, bioaerosol monitoring techniques, and environmental metagenomics. Her goal is to deepen understanding of biological particles in the atmosphere and their influence on climate processes.
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Rasmus Malmgren is a graduate of the Doctoral Programme in Microbiology and Biotechnology (University of Helsinki). In his PhD thesis entitled "Aerosol transmission of viruses" he studied how viruses transmit via aerosols and what parameters affect it. Now in his postdoctoral studies, he is diving deeper into the environmental factors that affect virus aerosol transmission, such as ultraviolet radiation, humidity and air pollutants.
Shafayet Islam, MSc, is currently working as a research assistant studying the UV and other environmental and seasonal effects on the viral infectivity using computational techniques such as molecular modelling, sequencing, and MD simulations. He did his Master's in Theoretical and Computational methods in biophysics and chemistry track at the University of Helsinki.
Jasu Nyrövaara, BSc, is a student in the Master's Programme in Microbiology and Microbial Biotechnology. He is currently working as a research assistant while conducting research for his master's thesis on The Effects of Ultraviolet Radiation on Viral RNA