Research groups that operate wholly or partly under the Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health.
The groups are presented in alphabetical order by the last name of the group leader.
Zoonotic Antimicrobial Resistance - Annamari Heikinheimo Group's research focuses on the epidemiology of zoonotic multiresistant bacteria (i.e. bacteria transmitting between animals and humans), aiming to improve knowledge on the occurrence and transmission routes of zoonotic antimicrobial resistant bacteria along the food chain, such as ESBL/pAmpC/carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae and livestock-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Our studies also aim towards implementing strategies to prevent further development and spread of antimicrobial resistant bacteria between animals and humans.
The research work conducted in Professor Miia Lindström's group focuses on molecular, ecological, epidemiological and evolutionary facets of foodborne pathogens with a specific emphasis on Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes associated with food safety and general public health.
Our multidisciplinary research focuses on the effectiveness of food control. The possibilities for consumers to ensure the safety and authenticity of purchased foods are very limited and a society driven food control system is necessary. We are interested in food control systems, control methods, measures taken in food control and the effects of food control on food businesses. Our goal is to increase public health by decreasing foodborne illnesses.
We are conducting research on the survival of viruses in food, water, and the environment, and their transmission to humans. Our goal is to understand how viruses persist in different conditions and the factors that impact their numbers. We focus on viruses that primarily infect humans, like noroviruses, as well as those that can be transmitted between humans and animals, such as hepatitis E virus. Eventually, our research aims to develop tools to decrease transmission of viruses causing diseases to humans.
Tarja Pitkänen’s group research interests focus on environmental health and environmental microbiology. Specifically, the group expertise covers water microbiology in terms how waterborne microbes might endanger the health of water users. This entails microbes and methods used for water quality monitoring and fecal source tracking, and pathogens causing waterborne and zoonotic infections. The research group leader Tarja Pitkänen is co-affiliated with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, a governmental research institute in Finland.
In their lifetime, humans are exposed to hundreds of thousands of chemical contaminants in the environment. Usually, they are not hazardous to one’s health, but, for example, exposure at a sensitive gestational age can lead to changes that become evident only in adulthood or even future generations. The study of the adverse effects of environmental chemicals is called environmental toxicology.
The world should be supplied with safe food which has been produced sustainably and ethically. This research community focuses on microbiology and control of safe and high quality meat production.
Research community: Maria Fredriksson-Ahomaa, Annamari Heikinheimo, Riikka Laukkanen-Ninios