Infectious disease researcher Johanna Lindahl joins the University of Helsinki as a professor in April. She has spent over a decade studying viruses that spread from animals to humans, and has carried out fieldwork across Africa and Asia.
Johanna Lindahl joins the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Faculty of Medicine as Professor in Zoonotic Virology on 16 April. Throughout her career, she has focused on diseases that spread from animals to humans, known as zoonoses, working primarily in Africa and Asia.
One Health: Animals, people and the environment
Lindahl's research follows the One Health approach, which treats human, animal and environmental health as inseparable. She is particularly interested in how climate change, shifts in land use and human behaviour affect the way diseases emerge and spread.
"Since my PhD studies, I have dedicated my research to zoonotic diseases, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. My main focus has been on vector-borne viruses," Lindahl says.
Vectors in terms of disease include organisms such as mosquitoes and ticks that can transmit viruses from animals to humans.
Pandemics can be prevented
Many zoonotic viruses are emerging or on the rise, and Lindahl believes that research has a key role to play in preparing for future pandemics.
"By limiting pathogen spread and spillover from animals to humans, we could stop an outbreak or a pandemic from happening," she claims.
Besides new threats, many neglected diseases receiving little attention or funding, such as rabies, continue to kill both people and animals in low-income countries. Addressing these diseases is an equally important part of Lindahl's work.
From Kenya to Vietnam and back to the Nordic countries
Lindahl completed her doctoral degree at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and continued with postdoctoral studies at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, where she later became a senior scientist before moving to ILRI's office in Vietnam.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, she returned to Sweden, working at Uppsala University and the Swedish Veterinary Agency. She brings over a decade of experience leading research projects in East Africa and Southeast Asia.
At the University of Helsinki, Lindahl will maintain her international collaborations, including with Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Norwegian Veterinary Institute and ILRI.
Johanna Lindahl has been recruited to the University of Helsinki through profile-building (Profi) funding from the Research Council of Finland.
This funding supports and accelerates the of Finnish universities to enhance research quality. The latest allocation funds the recruitment of researchers from abroad.
"Johanna Lindahl and her professorship are a great addition to the Helsinki One Health team, which works every day to promote systems thinking and develop new knowledge and tools to tackle the complex problems we face regarding human, animal and environmental health," says Dean Olli Peltoniemi from The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Dean Johanna Arola from the Faculty of Medicine wants to address how Lindahl strengthens an already active field of research at the University.
"She is a great addition to our zoonotic virus research group, which is shared between the medical and veterinary faculties. She brings an important international dimension to both faculties and to the Helsinki One Health network - and that is one of the key aims of the Research Council of Finland's Profi 9 funding."
