Ansioluettelo

Kalle M. Saksela

     Born September 10, 1962 in Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Education:

        MD, 1989 (University of Helsinki)

        PhD, 1989 (University of Helsinki)           

Professional history:

2005- Professor of Virology and Chairman of Department of Virology,

    University of Helsinki.

2005- Chief Physician, HUSLAB, Helsinki University Hospital.

1996-2005: Professor of Molecular Medicine. Institute for Medical Technology.

    University of Tampere. Finland.

1996-2000 Adjunct Professor associated with the laboratory of James Darnell Jr.

    The Rockefeller University, New York.

1994-1996 Assistant Professor. The Rockefeller University, New York.

1991-1994: Postdoctoral Fellow with David Baltimore at the Rockefeller University,

    New York.

1991-1991: Postdoctoral Fellow with David Baltimore at the Whitehead

    Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA.

1989-1990: Research Fellow, Department of Virology, University of Helsinki.

1984-1989: MD/PhD student with Kari Alitalo at the Department of Virology,

    University of Helsinki

Tutkimuksen ja opetuksen kuvaus

The HIV Nef protein has been a key subject of our research, Nef modifies host cell physiology to better support viral replication by binding to proteins involved in cellular signal structures via their SH3 domains. SH3 domains are the most ubiquitous class of modular protein binding units found in the nature. SH3 domains mediate many key regulatory processes in normal cells and are involved the pathomechanisms of many important diseases. It appears that many other viral proteins also share the capacity of Nef to utilize binding to host cell SH3 proteins in order to mediate their functions. Identification of normal SH3-mediated cellular protein interaction networks as well as SH3-interactions that take place between cellular and pathogenic viral proteins, and elucidation of the molecular basis of binding affinity and specificity involved in these interactions are the main topics goals of our research.

Key topics:

- Virus-host cell interplay

- Protein interactions

- SH3 domains

- miRNA and viruses

- Viral non-structural proteins

- Protein engineering