Mikael is senior lecturer in microscopic and comparative anatomy and developmental biology, docent in microscopic anatomy, and the Head of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences from 2026. He has >25 years of research experience in developmental biology, domestic animal immunology, intestinal physiology and microbiology. He is a principal investigator since 2016, and supervisor of several PhD and licentiate theses.
"I am interested in the earliest host-microbe interactions in the mammalian intestine: when and how they begin, and how the immune system learns to tolerate commensal microbes while repelling pathogens. The development of a healthy immune system requires microbial exposure early in life. The interactions with the maternal microbiota begin already before birth, but the mechanisms and microbial signals involved are still unclear."
Tiina is university lecturer in veterinary anatomy and senior scientist in the Developmental Interactions Research Group. She has >30 years of experience on lymphocyte biology, immunological methods, cell culture, flow cytometry and sorting of eukaryote and prokaryote cells.
Roselydiah is a passionate scientist who recently joined our team as a doctoral reseacher. She has extensive knowledge and skills in molecular biology, cell culture, virology, and parasitology. Her area of interest is in the gut microbiota. She is interested in learning more about the relationship between gut microbiota and their hosts, as well as how this interaction affects the host, and wishes to apply the knowledge gained to solve some of the societal challenges.
Johanna has a master’s degree in soil science and a PhD in microbiology. She recently joined our team due to our mutual interests related to adaptations of bacteria in hosts and environments. Johanna has studied environmental microbiomes using sequence-based approaches, bioinformatics, and biostatistics for over a decade and was among the first scientists applying these methodologies in studying the environmental dimension of antibiotic resistance. Johanna has also a research group of her own, called “Microbial Archaeology and Agricultural Microbiology”, at the Microbiology Department, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry (website coming up!). Johanna is also passionate about One Health and is the chairperson of One Health Finland (
Arina has studied various aspects of the interactions between metazoan hosts and their associated microbes in several marine invertebrate models (PhD in biochemistry and zoology). Much of her research experience is related to analysis of proteins/peptides in the contexts of evolutionary biology (e.g. characterisation of fast-evolving proteins involved in immunity, reproduction or adaptation). Also, she has experience investigating metabolomic changes that accompany ecological accommodation, parasite infestation, etc., as well as analysis of composition, plasticity, metabolomic capacity of associated microbiomes and possible roles of microbes in host adaptation.
Arina currently holds a full-time position at Uppsala University and collaborates with us as data analyst.
Aleksi is currently finalizing his PhD thesis.
"Prenatal host-microbe interactions prime the developing intestinal immune system and a species-specific microbiota, seeded by the mother, is necessary for proper immune differentiation. In my project we aim to find out what kind of microbial factors can enter the fetus, how these factors influence the developing immune system and what are the long-term effects of the microbial exposure to host immunity and fitness."
Expert in molecular biology (such as nucleic acid extraction and PCR), microbiology (including anaerobic culture), immunohistochemistry and cell culture.
Expert in histology, immunohistochemistry and molecular biology.
Mohammad's PhD is about perinatal intestinal microbiota in large mammals. He is a licensed veterinarian (DVM) in Finland and Sweden with special interests and expertise in laboratory animal science. Mohammad is trained and skilled with several cellular and molecular biology techniques such as PCR, flow cytometry, cell culture, immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy, among others. In the project, his main duty is DNA based microbiota research. Mohammad is currently working elsewhere.
Antti is the professor of veterinary anatomy and developmental biology and a PI in the Developmental Interactions Research Group.
"I was the former group leader of Developmental Interactions but felt that the time had come to rejuvenate the group. So I have stepped down and follow with great interest the group's exciting scientific journey under Mikael's leadership.”
Kwon is our previous postdoctoral researcher, now running his own lab at the University of Ulsan, South Korea.
Lea completed her PhD in 2020.
Lea's PhD thesis:
Jenni got her PhD in 2014.
Tiina got her PhD in 2015.
Anna got her PhD in 2012.