2012 © Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM
Medical systems virology
Welcome to the webpage of our group! 
At the global level, influenza A virus (IAV) is considered a major health threat because it causes significant morbidity and mortality. Different treatment and prevention options have been developed; however, these are insufficient in the face of recent IAV outbreaks.
Our goals
- to determine the principles that govern IAV-host interactions;
- to develop inhibitors targeting IAV-host interactions;
- to find genetic markers of individual susceptibility for severe IAV infections.
Recent publications
Feng L, Lintula S, Ho TH, Anastasina M, Paju A, Haglund C, Stenman UH, Hotakainen K, Orpana A, Kainov D, Stenman J. (2012) Technique for strand-specific gene-expression analysis and monitoring of primer-independent cDNA synthesis in reverse transcription. BioTechniques. 52: 263-270.
Mueller KH, Kakkola L, Nagaraj AS, Cheltsov AV, Anastasina M, Kainov DE. (2012) Emerging cellular targets for influenza antiviral agents. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 33: 89-99
Mueller KH, Kainov DE, El Bakkouri K, Saelens X, De Brabander JK, Kittel C, Samm E, Muller CP. (2011) The proton translocation domain of cellular vacuolar ATPase provides a target for the treatment of influenza A virus infections. Br J Pharmac. 164: 344-357
Kainov DE, Mueller KH, Theisen LL, Anastasina M, Kaloinen M, Muller CP. (2011) Differential effects of NS1 proteins of human pandemic H1N1/2009, avian highly pathogenic H5N1 and low pathogenic H5N2 influenza A viruses on cellular pre-mRNA polyadenylation and mRNA translation. J Biol Chem. 286: 7239-7247
Group Members
Denis Kainov, PhD, Docent, FIMM-EMBL group-leader
Laura Kakkola, PhD, Academy of Finland postdoctoral fellow
Johanna Lampe, PhD, BF postdoctoral fellow
Maria Anastasina, MSc, grad student, HBGS fellow
Minttu Kaloinen, BSc, bioanalyst
Oxana Denisova, MSc, CIMO fellow
Alumni
Maarten Vanlede, MSc, Erasmus student (09.11-12.11). Thesis: "Next-generation sequencing of influenza A virus genomes"
Collaborators
Tuula Nyman (Institute of Biotechnology, Finland)
Ilkka Julkunen (Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland)
Anton Cheltsov (Q-Mol L.L.C., USA)
Pavel Ivanov (Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA)
Jakob Stenman (Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research, Finland)
Hannimari Kallio-Kokko (Helsinki University Hospital, Finland)
Kalle Saksela (Haartman Institute, Finland)
Sarah Butcher (Institute of Biotechnology, Finland)
Xavier Saelens (VIB, University of Ghent, Belgium)
Funding
