We study phage biology using mainly freshwater phage-host systems as models. We are especially interested in megaphages which are larger and have genomes over ten times longer than the so-called typical phages. Our study interests include phage characteristics, phage-host interactions and phage competition.
April 2026
New lab member - Project researcher Ole Franz started. Welcome!
Karyna is visiting Daniel Wilson’s lab at the University of Hamburg, and later this month Meeri will be visiting Rob Lavigne’s lab at KU Leuven. We are looking forward to exciting collaborations and new insights!
March 2026
Our proposal got accepted in JGI's New Investigator Call 2026! This will give us an excellent opportunity to investigate mechanisms of megaphage infection. The project is co-led by Karyna Karneyeva. More info about the 2026 call results here
February 2026
We were happy to host PhD researcher from Kotaro Kiga's research group, Yuuki Tomari from National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS). Visit was facilitated by a collaborative research project between ERC and Japanese AMED.
December 2025
Out now - Read more about our ongoing ERC StG project "Life of Giant Phages" in the Project Repository Journal - Volume 25 - EDMA
If you are interested in (large) phage-related thesis topics (see examples below), please send an email to Elina
2025
2025 Siina Niskanen & Krista Siiranto: Ympäristöbakteereissa esiintyvien plasmidien eristys ja analyysi
2024 Hanna Kentala & Kaisa Mäkelä: Elf16-megafaagin infektiokyvyn stabilointi
