Sisko Tauriainen
PhD, Adjunct professor
sisko.tauriainen@utu.fi +358 29 450 4554 +358 46 921 4201 |
Virology; Parechoviruses; Enteroviruses; Cell cultures
MSc, PhD in Biochemistry
Adjunct professor in Molecular biology/Molecular virology
Current position: University lecturer
Former positions: university teacher at University of Turku; senior researcher and earlier post-doctoral researcher at University of Tampere; post-doctoral researcher at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; Doctoral student at University of Turku, department of Biochemistry
Major funding: Academy of Finland, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation
Student supervision: 4 PhD and over 20 undergraduate theses
Publications: over 40 refereed original research articles, 7 review articles or conference proceedings
Human parechoviruses (HPeVs) belong to the Picornavirdae family. They are small, non-enveloped and have a positive strand RNA genome of about 7300 bases. HPeV type 1 is a common virus infecting mainly children; practically everyone contacts it by the age of 3 years. HPeVs cause usually mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, but also severe central nervous systems infections, like meningitis, encephalitis and sepsis-like disease, have been detected in new-born babies. Mainly these severe symptoms are caused by HPeV3.
We have studied the HPeV epidemiology and disease connections and confirmed that HPeVs are common and the severe diseases do occur also in Finland. We were the first to identify HPeV4 as a serious disease causing type of these viruses in children with sepsis-like disease. Our studies focus on the disease causing abilities of these viruses and why the causative type is mostly HPeV3. The studies are done in human neuronal cell models, in vitro. The virus-cell interactions are studied and how the changes in virus genome affect virus infectivity, speed of virus replication as well as cellular metabolism and morphology.
- Lectures: Enteric viruses, Virus life cycle, Picornaviruses
- Tutoring (Case Based Learning): Water and food borne viruses
- Lab courses: Microbial diagnostics
- First two cases of neonatal human parechovirus 4 infection with manifestation of suspected sepsis, Finland (2013)
- Journal of Clinical Virology
- Human enterovirus 71 strains in the background population and in hospital patients in Finland (2013)
- Journal of Clinical Virology
- Human parechovirus and the risk of type 1 diabetes (2013)
- Journal of Medical Virology
- Human parechovirus seroprevalence in Finland and the Netherlands (2013)
- Journal of Clinical Virology
- Inflammation and Increased Myxovirus Resistance Protein A Expression in Thyroid Tissue in the Early Stages of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (2013)
- Thyroid
- Is alcoholic pancreatitis associated with enteroviral infection? (2013)
- World Journal of Gastroenterology
- Human parechoviruses are frequently detected in stool of healthy Finnish children (2012)
- Journal of Clinical Virology
- Interaction of enterovirus infection and cow's milk-based formula nutrition in type 1 diabetes-associated autoimmunity (2012)
- Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews
- Maternal Enterovirus Infection as a Risk Factor for Type 1 Diabetes in the Exposed Offspring (2012)
- Diabetes Care
- Role of enterovirus infections in IgE sensitization (2012)
- Journal of Medical Virology
- The association between prior infection with five serotypes of Coxsackievirus B and incident type 2 diabetes mellitus in the EPIC-Norfolk study (2012)
- Diabetologia
- Type 1 Diabetes Is Associated With Enterovirus Infection in Gut Mucosa (2012)
- Diabetes
- Coxsackievirus B3-Induced Cellular Protrusions: Structural Characteristics and Functional Competence (2011)
- Journal of Virology
- Enteroviruses in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (2011)
- Seminars in Immunopathology
- Enterovirus infections in young infants Are children still protected by maternal antibodies? (2011)
- Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics
- Enterovirus RNA in Blood Is Linked to the Development of Type 1 Diabetes (2011)
- Diabetes
- Collecting high-quality pancreatic tissue for experimental study from organ donors with signs of beta-cell autoimmunity (2010)
- Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews
- Evaluation of immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization methods for the detection of enteroviruses using infected cell culture samples (2010)
- Journal of Clinical Virology
- Expression of Toll-like Receptors in the Pancreas of Recent-onset Fulminant Type 1 Diabetes (2010)
- Endocrine Journal -Tokyo-
- Use of antisera directed against dsRNA to detect viral infections in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue (2010)
- Journal of Clinical Virology