Karita received her Master's degree in biology/microbiology from the University of Helsinki Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences and her doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine. She continued her research as post doctoral fellow at University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands. Currently she is working as a senior fellow in Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, US. Her current special research interests are on microbial innate immune evasion and the role of complement system in inflammatory diseases.
Eija received her Master's degree and her doctorate from the University of Oulu. Her current special research interests are on the role of complement system in atherosclerosis.
Pavel completed his PhD in physiology at the University of Helsinki in 2010. His thesis was dedicated to mechanisms of the transcriptional regulation of the neuronal K-Cl cotransporter KCC2, which is critical for GABAergic inhibition in the central nervous system. Pavel uses a broad spectrum of molecular biology and biochemical methods, imaging techniques as well as various cell culture and in vivo mouse approaches. His current interest is in the role of the complement system in the development of Alzheimer’s disease
Supervised by Karita Haapasalo and Seppo Meri. Shahan completed his masters in biochemistry from the University of Oulu in 2016. He is currently working on his PhD thesis in Inflammation and Infections team. He is especially interested to study Streptococcal virulence. The pathogen that fascinates him most is Streptococcus pneumoniae. He aims to contribute to a better understanding of the virulence and immune evasion by Streptococci.
Supervised by Karita Haapasalo. Larisa completed her specialist degree in 2015 at Saint Petersburg Chemical-Pharmaceutical Academy. Her Master's thesis was focused on immunological conflict in maternal-fetal interface. After that she studied integrin cross-regulation for three years. Her strenghts are structral biology and scientific communication.
Uni Rankka, MSc student, University of Helsinki
Mareena Hyypiä, MSc student, University of Helsinki
Lilith Heiland, MSc student, University of Helsinki
Emilia Vataja, MD student, University of Helsinki