People

PhD, Associate Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases

I am the Director of Helsinki One Health network and work both at the Department of Virology, Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. I also serve as the Vice-Dean responsible for social engagement for the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. My One Health research focuses on emerging infectious diseases and factors driving spillover from wildlife to domestic animals and to people. Find out more through Tarja Sironen Orchid account.

tarja.sironen@helsinki.fi

Follow Tarja on Twitter

PhD, Docent in medical microbiology, senior researcher

I am a researcher in the group with background in IT, NSG, bioinformatics, and microbiology. My current research focus is on genomics and evolution of various pathogens. I am also interested in development of various animal models to study emerging infectious diseases.

More details on my research and publication can be found on my Homepage or through the Ravi Kant Research Portal profile.

ravi.kant@helsinki.fi

PhD, post-doctoral researcher 

I'm a clinical microbiologist and recently defended my thesis. My research interests include infectious diseases in humans and animals focusing on human-animal interface, evolution, transmission, virus-host-dynamics and host-jumps. Another strong area of interest is diagnostics development and means to control the spread of infectious diseases. My work has included parvoviruses, poxviruses, coronaviruses, and other respiratory viruses. My previous studies can be found through Jenni Virtanen Orchid account.

jenni.me.virtanen@helsinki.fi

PhD, post-doctoral researcher

I am a microbiologist and molecular biologist. My main topic of research is the development of a highly specific assay for the rapid and accurate detection of Alkhurma Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (an emerging and tick-borne zoonotic  flavivirus ), by the application of protein recombination technology.  

fathiah.zakham@helsinki.fi

MSc, PhD student in clinical veterinary medicine.

My PhD project is to study the Fur animal Epidemic Necrotic pyoderma which is a severe skin infection found mainly in the fur animal population. I’m characterizing the pathogens and their virulence factors and developing a vaccine as well as bio safety measures to stop the spread of the disease. My other research interests are currently parvoviruses and vaccine development, and study of emerging pathogens and microbiomes especially through NGS techniques. Links to my previous studies can be found through my Orchid account or through the Kirsi Aaltonen Research Portal profile.

kirsi.aaltonen@helsinki.fi

DVM, PhD student

I am a PhD student working on emerging zoonotic viruses in wild small mammals in Kenya. This work aims to answer three key research question;  which viruses are hosted by these small mammals, what are their phylogenetic relationship to known emerging and re emerging infections (EIDs), what are the transmission routes and lastly are bats and rodents transmitting viral pathogens to livestock?

joseph.ogola@helsinki.fi

MSc, PhD student in medical virology

I am a PhD student in the team studying rodent-borne viruses. I did my Master thesis on Mammarenavirus LCMV that infects humans in Southern Iraq, which led to the detection of two novel LCMV strains. Currently I am working in projects studying rodent-borne viruses from both field caught rodents and patient samples from three different environments: Finland, Kenya and Iraq. The study interest includes serology diagnostics (to screen the samples to viruses, such as arenaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, and orthobunyaviruses), virus detection, distribution and molecular epidemiology. We study these pathogens using NGS techniques. 

Technical staff

johanna.martikainen@helsinki.fi