Kalle Saksela

Kalle M. Saksela (September 10, 1962 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US) is a Finnish virologist. He has been a professor at University of Helsinki since 2005, where he leads the virology department.

Biography and work[]

Since 2005 Saksela is Professor of Virology and Chairman of University of Helsinki's Department of Virology, as well as Chief Physician at Helsinki University Hospital's HUSLAB. From 1996 to 2005, Saksela was Professor of Molecular Medicine with the Institute for Medical Technology at University of Tampere, Finland. From 1996 to 2000 Saksela was also associated, as Adjunct Professor, with James E. Darnell's laboratory at The Rockefeller University, New York, where he had previously worked as Assistant Professor from 1994 to 1996.^[1]

In 1989 he obtained his MD and PhD from the University of Helsinki under the supervision of Kari Alitalo. In 1989/1990 Saksela was Research Fellow with Helsinki's Department of Virology. In 1991, Saksela worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with David Baltimore at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA, and then followed him to the Rockefeller University.^[1]

In 2002 Saksela was awarded the by the University of Oslo for his research on Aids.^[2] In 2003 he became a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.^[1]

His father, Eero Saksela, is an emeritus professor of medicine.

Covid-19 related research[]

Saksela and coworkers developed during the spring of 2020 a patent free COVID-19 vaccine, which uses an adenovirus as a delivery system for genetic information to trigger the production of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. While being successful in animal trials the project could not secure funding for large human trials. Later in the year Saksela co-founded Rokote Laboratories with researches of the University of Eastern Finland to develop a nasal spray that can be used to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.^[3]^[4]^[5]