Ravi Kant's Homepage
Education, degrees
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Adj. Associate
Professor (Docent) of Medical Microbiology, University of Helsinki, Finland.
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Assistant Professor,
Medical University of Gdansk, Poland (Visiting).
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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.
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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.
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Meta-genomics and viromics of different vertebrates.
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Exome sequencing and
analysis related to various diseases.
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Developing oral animal
vaccines - targeting FENP and parvovirus in carnivores.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Supervised
PhD thesis of J. Virtanen (completed 05/2022).
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Currently I am
supervising four doctoral candidates.
•
I am an external
member of PhD thesis committee for Mirte van der
Heijden, Noora Salokorpi
and Kaisa Jaakkola (University of Helsinki).
•
Reviewer
for Docent application at University of Helsinki.
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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.
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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
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EU-Horizon-HLTH-2023
grant of 458000 for “Pipeline for Rapid Diagnostics for Emergency Transboundary
Infectious Diseases” with Dr. Tarja Sironen (2023-2027).
•
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).
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Reviewer
for Slovak Research and
Development Agency.
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Selected among 6 mentors for the
prestigious Early Career Champions mentorship program between University of
Helsinki and University of Nairobi for 2023-2024.
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Appointed as editor
for PeerJ journal.
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Editor Frontiers
in Microbiology and Editorial Board member of Frontiers in Tuberculosis.
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Editorial Board member
of Microbial Insights.
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Guest editor for
Antibiotics for a special issue "The
Genomics of Pathogens"
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Lead guest editor for
issue entitled “From
Microbial Genomics to Metagenomics” in International Journal of Genomics.
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Grant from Finnish
Foundation of Veterinary Research.
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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)
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FEMS young scientist
grant for 2008, 2010 and 2012.
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Reviewer for
Scientific Reports, PLoS ONE, Bioinformatics, PeerJ, Microbial Biotechnology, BMC Veterinary Research,
Genomics, J. Genomics, mSystems (ASM), BBRC, FEBS
Lett., etc.
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Received INRIA/IRISA
(France) fellowship for the year 2004-2005 for a research project.
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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.
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Offered to start my
own company at IIM, Ahmedabad campus with starting support and initial funding.
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Chancellor grant,
Helsinki University for 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
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Travel grant for short
presentation at 16th European Congress of Immunology, Paris France.
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Travel grant for
presenting my work at MDI Stem Cell Symposium, Salisbury Cove, USA.
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Received a grant by
Embassy of France in India.
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Awarded a certificate
from UNESCO for passing united nations general knowledge test held by UNESCO.
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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
Department
Page - Medical University of Gdansk
