I have MD, PhD background and I work as a professor of forensic medicine in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Helsinki, and as a senior medical examiner in the Forensic Medicine Unit at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare. My research interests are archeaovirology, population genetics, forensic genetics, paleopathology, and ancient biomolecules and forensic medicine at large.
I am an Academy Research Fellow investigating virus epidemiology and evolution as well as human genomics for identification and characterization of modern and ancient human populations. Understanding the world around us and providing knowledge, especially on viruses – creatures not even considered alive, yet with great impact on the whole world – is what motivates me most as a scientist.
In my Research Council of Finland -funded project Virus fingerprint for human identification (ViFi-ID) we aim to produce a completely new method for human identification via virus fingerprint, a unique viral genome collection, residing in our organs.
I am an evolutionary geneticist with an interest in using DNA of ancient and modern organisms to study different evolutionary questions. My research interests include temperature selection on the mitochondrial genome and evolution of persistent human viruses.
I am a post-doctoral researcher studying the genomic variation of ancient Peruvians from the Chachapoyas region and the southern Pacific coast as well as the pathogens that reside in different organic tissues. My topics of interest include human population diversity and mobility, pathogens evolution and the mechanisms that facilitated/prevented disease transmission in different environments.
I am a postdoctoral researcher focusing on the genomic study of the mysterious archaeological remains of Levänluhta in Isokyrö, in Southwest Finland. My areas of interest revolve around the intriguing realms of persistent ancient pathogens and the evolving health dynamics spanning across ancient eras and the present day. Additionally, I study the human genomic diversity in this cohort and the connections of the Levänluhta people within Finland and to other neighboring populations.
I am a MSc student in Translational Medicine and work as a research assistant in a Virus phylogeography project.
I work as a part time IT technician in this research group.