Ravi Kant's Homepage
Education, degrees
•
Adj. Associate
Professor (Docent) of Medical Microbiology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
•
PhD (Veterinary
Medicine and Bioinformatics) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of
Helsinki, Finland.
Current and past positions
2018 - (Present) Working as university
researcher at Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
University of Helsinki, Finland.
• Genomics of various pathogens.
•
Coordinating efforts
on COVID-19
related research at Helsinki University.
•
Vector-borne diseases and
climate change in Finland: mapping, modelling, mitigation project (funded
by Academy of Finland)
•
Involved in Versatile Emerging infectious
disease Observatory project (funded by EU).
•
SARS-CoV-2 sequencing
and analysis.
•
Development of various animal models to study emerging
infectious diseases. Leading animal experiments and work in biosafety level 3
(BSL3) at University of Helsinki.
•
Development of various methods and pipelines for
genomics (NGS data).
•
Genomics of parapox and monkeypox virus.
•
Next-generation sequencing based test to identifies
and measures microbial cell-free DNA in plasma from clinically relevant samples
for bacteria’s, viruses, fungi and eukaryotic parasites (funded by HUSLAB).
•
Next-generation
sequencing approaches for combating the antibiotic resistome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
•
Meta-genomics and
viromics of different vertebrates.
•
Exome sequencing and
analysis related to various diseases.
•
Developing oral animal
vaccines - targeting FENP and parvovirus in carnivores.
•
Database and website
development and management.
2008 - 2018 Worked as a researcher at
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
•
Understanding the
molecular mechanisms of gut commensal colonization, pathogen exclusion, and
host-microbe interplay, Academy of Finland (2014-2018).
•
Center of excellence
in Microbial Food Safety Research project, Academy of Finland (2008-2013).
•
Genomics,
meta-genomics and transcriptome analysis of several Lactobacillus species.
•
Genomics and
meta-genomics of Akkermansia muciniphila.
• Comparative genomics of Verrucomicrobia.
2005 - 2008 Worked as a
researcher/bioinformatician and also took some courses at University of Turku,
Finland.
•
Various bioinformatics
related projects.
•
Gene expression
profiling of at-risk children for type 1 diabetes.
•
Identification of
Novel Genes Characteristic for Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESC).
•
hESC database
fulfilling international MIAME and MAGE standards.
2004 - 2005 - Worked as a researcher at
INRIA-IRISA (CNRS), Rennes, France.
•
Linguistic Analysis of
Biological Sequences.
2004 - Worked as research intern,
Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
•
Generating algorithm
for Comparative Modelling and Identification of Start and End Signatures in
Secondary Structures of proteins.
2003 - Worked as research trainee at Bioinformatics
Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
•
Sweet Proteins -
Comparative Modelling and Docking Studies in Curculin, Mabinlin, Miraculin with
T1R2-T1R3 Receptor.
Supervision,
Teaching and organizing scientific meetings
•
Supervised
PhD thesis of J. Virtanen (completed 05/2022).
•
Currently I am
supervising four doctoral candidates.
•
I am an external
member of PhD thesis committee for Kaisa Jaakkola (University of Helsinki).
•
Reviewer of master’s
thesis at University of Helsinki.
•
Organizer,
lecturer, and evaluator for the TMED-503
Infection Biology course 2022 onwards (5 credit), Faculty of Medicine,
University of Helsinki.
•
Building the course
platform and producing material for the Moodle for TMED-503
Infection Biology 2022 onwards.
•
I have completed University
pedagogy UP1 and UP2.1 (10 credits).
•
Currently organizing COVID-19
seminar series at Helsinki university.
•
Host for the
weekly Viral Zoonosis Research Unit Meeting (VZGM) seminar series (2018-
present). Department of Virology, Medicum, University of Helsinki, Finland
•
I have been involved
in organizing scientific seminars at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Achievements, awards and grants
•
Grant of 563000 € from
Jene and Aatos Erkko foundation on “Next-generation sequencing approaches for
combating the antibiotic resistome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis” together with
Dr. Tarja Sironen and Dr. Fathiah Zakham.
•
Reviewer
for Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
•
Reviewer
for Slovak Research and
Development Agency.
•
Appointed as editor
for PeerJ journal.
•
Editor Frontiers
in Microbiology and Editorial Board member of Novel treatments of
Tuberculosis.
•
Guest editor for
Antibiotics for a special issue "The
Genomics of Pathogens"
•
Lead guest editor for
issue entitled “From
Microbial Genomics to Metagenomics” in International Journal of Genomics.
•
Grant from Finnish
Foundation of Veterinary Research.
•
Funding for
(2013-2014) continuing research by ABS, Helsinki University.
• Grant of 6000 euros by TULI (Science Park, Finland) for acquiring
patent, IPR and market survey for entrepreneurial idea. (www.tuli.info)
•
FEMS young scientist
grant for 2008, 2010 and 2012.
•
Reviewer for
Scientific Reports, PLoS ONE, Bioinformatics, PeerJ, Microbial Biotechnology,
BMC Veterinary Research, Genomics, J. Genomics, mSystems (ASM), BBRC, FEBS
Lett., etc.
•
Received INRIA/IRISA
(France) fellowship for the year 2004-2005 for a research project.
•
Gold Medal for one of
India’s biggest entrepreneur and incubation competition ANVENSEN III, 2005
organized by IIM, Ahmedabad in collaboration with Government of India.
•
Offered to start my
own company at IIM, Ahmedabad campus with starting support and initial funding.
•
Chancellor grant,
Helsinki University for 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
•
Travel grant for short
presentation at 16th European Congress of Immunology, Paris France.
•
Travel grant for
presenting my work at MDI Stem Cell Symposium, Salisbury Cove, USA.
•
Received a grant by
Embassy of France in India.
•
Awarded a certificate
from UNESCO for passing united nations general knowledge test held by UNESCO.
•
Received a certificate
from Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, for
participating in poster making competition on wild life conservation.
Hobbies
Playing Football, Cricket, Badminton,
Tennis, Swimming, tracking in the forest and spending time at our cottage.
Publications
Family
Wife: Evi Kant (Kanttori, Hausjärven
Seurakunta, Suomi)
Beloved Daughters: Liisa & Saara Kant
Father: Janardan Prasad (Retired
University Professor of Entomology, Rajendra Agriculture University, India)
Mother: Nilam Prasad
Brother: Shashi Kant (Assistant Professor,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA)
Sister: Vandana Kumari (Post doctoral
researcher, Charité, Germany)
Contact
Ravi.Kant(at)helsinki.fi
Group’s Homepage-VZRU
Group’s Homepage-EID
