
Petri
Susi
University Lecturer, Institute of Biomedicine
Adjunct Professor, Institute of Biomedicine
PhD - University lecturer, docent (in molecular virology at University of Turku and in plant cell biology and biotechnology at University of Helsinki)
Links
Areas of expertise
Picornavirus
enterovirus
rhinovirus
parechovirus
virus evolution
bioinformatics
respiratory pathogens
clinical virology
diagnostics
protein production technologies
bioprocesses
cell culture techniques
molecular biology
gene technology
biosecurity
research data management;
Biography
For three years I studied biochemistry as major subject at University of Turku (Turku, Finland) just to end up to graduate with MSc degree in biology in 1994. The following five years (1995-1999) I worked as graduate student at University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland; with prof. Eija Pehu and Dr. Kirsi Lehto), Agrotechnological Research Institute (Wageningen, Netherlands; with Dr. Chris van der Schoot) and The James Hutton Institute (Dundee, UK; with Dr. Lesley Torrance) to finalize my PhD degree in the field of plant virology. As a post-doc, I did a short visit to cancer cell biology in Turku Bioscience - Turku Centre for Biotechnology (in 2000; with Dr. Päivi Koskinen), before securing four-year personal funding as post-doctoral researcher of Academy of Finland. I worked with FLP/FRT gene editing system in plants with a twist to plant virus movement processes in Joint Biotechnology Laboratory at University of Turku in 2001-2004. Following that period, I made a slight career turn from plant virology to human picornavirus research, and joined the group of prof. Timo Hyypiä to become a university staff member (Institute of Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku). Currently, I am in a position of university lecturer in medical biotechnology and microbiology. My work history also includes research visits to diagnostic companies in Finland (2015 and 2017) and abroad (2015), two years as project manager at Turku University of Applied Sciences (2012-2013), and expert work in Tykslab clinical virology unit (2006-2012). I have co-founded two start-up companies.
Teaching
My teaching portfolio with medical and biomedical students includes virological lectures, TaLO tutoring and role as a lab course organizer and/or instructor in microbiology, biochemistry and molecular biology. I am also involved in organizing bioecurity course and UTUGS course on Basic Research Data Management. I have completed full pedagogical teacher training (60 ECTS) in Faculty of Education at University of Turku.
Research
My research has always been connected to molecular biology, microbiology and biotechnology. My current research focuses on picornavirus evolution, tropism, pathogenicity and diagnostics. I am particularly interested in the relationship between picornavirus genome evolution, cellular infectivity and disease mechanisms, which are the key elements in therapy development. Current projects include NGS sequencing of human picornaviruses, receptor search for entero- and parechoviruses, cell tropism of Rigvir oncolytic echovirus and development of novel diagnostics to rhinoviruses in SPARK Finland program.
Publications
Recommendations for the introduction of metagenomic high-throughput sequencing in clinical virology, part I: Wet lab procedure (2021)
Journal of Clinical Virology
(A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikauslehdessä)
Aseptic meningitis outbreak associated with echovirus 4 in Northern Europe in 2013-2014 (2020)
Journal of Clinical Virology
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Recombination Events and Conserved Nature of Receptor Binding Motifs in Coxsackievirus A9 Isolates (2020)
Viruses
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Pikornavirukset (2020)
(D2 Artikkeli ammatillisessa kokoomateoksessa)Enteroviruses (EV A-D) (2020)
(D2 Artikkeli ammatillisessa kokoomateoksessa)Special Issue "Human Picornaviruses" (2020)
Viruses
(B1 Kirjoitus tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Detection of human rhinoviruses by reverse transcription strand invasion based amplification method (RT-SIBA) (2019)
Journal of Virological Methods
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)
Progress in human picornavirus research: New findings from the AIROPico consortium (2019)
Antiviral Research
(A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikauslehdessä)
Recommendations for enterovirus diagnostics and characterisation within and beyond Europe (2018)
Journal of Clinical Virology
(A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikauslehdessä)
Genome sequences of RIGVIR oncolytic virotherapy virus and five other echovirus 7 isolates (2018)
Genome Announcements
(A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä)