People

Reetta studied biology, microbiology, and biochemistry in the Moscow State University, Russia and in the University of Helsinki (UH), Finland and received her MSc. and Ph.Lic. (Licentiate) in microbiology in 1996 and 1999, respectively from the UH.  She then worked as a researcher in VTT Technical Research Centre, Espoo, Finland and did her PhD thesis research on human intestinal lactobacilli and bifidobacteria as a joint-project between VTT and the Wageningen University (WU), The Netherlands, where she worked in 1999-2001. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2002 from WU, NL. As a post-doc she worked in VTT and in the University of Turku, Finland and was involved in several projects on the development of a novel DNA/RNA detection technique as well as in research on intestinal microbiota and probiotics.

In 2008, Reetta was nominated as a docent (adjunct professor) in microbiology. Since 2011, she has been leading her own research group on human intestinal microbiota and host-microbe interactions in UH.

When Reetta is not occupied with science, she likes to make handicrafts with her daughter, enjoy nature in the Turku archipelago and to exercise belly movements in oriental dancing classes.

Imran did his PhD in Comparative genomics from CIIMAR, University of Porto and he joined as Postdoctoral Researcher at Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki. He received Academy of Finland Postdoctoral research funding for project “Genotype-phenotype mapping of craniofacial development and adaptation in squamate reptiles”. Presently, Imran is using NGS approaches to unravel role of Human Microbiome in Intestinal health, disease and therapy. His interest and expertise involve Molecular Biology, Genomics, Epigenomics (ATAC-Seq & ChIP-Seq), Transcriptomics, Single Cell-Omics, Evo-Devo and Human Microbiome. He is Wildlife enthusiast.

Anna has joined group first as a research assistant, and during that time she became fascinated by the microbiome research. She has participated in group's several projects and has worked for example with DNA-based methods in the wet lab. She completed her PhD in Satokari group in 2024 and her project included both wet lab work and bioinformatics. The topic of her PhD was bacterial colonization in fecal microbiota transplantation. She continues in Satokari group as a post-doctoral researcher focusing on bioinformatics. Her projects include The European project Long COVID and Endotarget as well as a colorectal cancer project.

Berta Bosch started on September 1^st 2020 as a Doctoral Researcher in Satokari’s group and she will be working on new formulations of microbiome-based therapies. Berta has graduated from master’s itinerary in ‘Care in Pharmacy and Clinical Analysis’ in Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona, Spain. During her studies she has developed a special interest in clinical and microbiology topics and participated in Univ. Barcelona institutional activities related to microbiology. In 2019, she participated in an Erasmus+ program of the European Commission at UH, where she did her Master´s thesis in the Bioactivity Screening group, Fac. Pharmacy. The thesis topic was ‘Development of imaging-based assay to assess adherence and invasion of uropathogenic Escherichia coli to host cells’.

The aims of her PhD project research arise from the previous studies of the research group and are closely integrated to others on-going research both in the laboratory and clinic. The aims are i) to develop protocols for anaerobic preparation of fecal material and to study its microbiological stability over freeze-storage at -80ºC, and ii) to use the anaerobically processed transplantation material in a clinical trial in Helsinki University Central Hospital. The aim is also iii) to develop formulations for the encapsulation of pure strains of intestinal bacteria, which would facilitate their use as orally administered next-generation probiotics.

When she is not working in her project, she enjoys spending time with her friends, reading, hiking and some other outdoors activities.