PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS



Heli Harvala

University of Turku, FINLAND

Heli Harvala, PhD, MD, MSc, EUPHEM Alumni and FRCPath, is Professor of Virology in the Institute of Biomedicine at the University of Turku. Her primary research interests relate to the clinical, transfusion and public health virology, aiming to produce scientific data to advance clinical practice and improve our epidemic preparedness. Professor Harvala has also completed a medical specialist training in Microbiology. She continues to work as a Consultant Medical Virologist at the Department of Medical Microbiology in Turku University Hospital, and also supports NHS Blood and Transplant in England. She gained further experience in public health microbiology, disease prevention and control during the European Public Health Microbiology (EUPHEM) fellowship program organized by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC).

She is a co-founder of the European Non-Polio Enterovirus Network (ENPEN) established in 2017, which evaluates the importance of enterovirus infections and monitors for their emergence together with collaborators from over 30 European countries. During COVID-19 pandemic, she was involved with setting up SARS-CoV-2 testing of convalescent plasma donors in England and the related international REMAP-CAP trial. She also has wide interests in molecular epidemiology and next generation sequencing. While her primary research group in Turku focuses on emerging infections, molecular epidemiology and advancing next generation sequencing, she also continues to lead the Blood Safety research team within the NIHR funded Blood and Transplant Research Unit at the University of Oxford (BTRU-GEMS). This research focuses on transfusion transmitted viral infections aiming to improve our understanding of current risks and preparedness for emerging pathogens.  

Prof Harvala is widely published in the field of medical, transfusion and public health virology (over 140 peer reviewed publications, h-index 52). She is a president of European Society for Clinical Virology. She recently chaired the WHO R&D Blueprint group on Picornaviruses and is a member of the WHO European Region Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication. 



Thea Fischer

Nordsjællands Hospital in Copenhagen, DENMARK

Thea K. Fischer is Director of the Department of Clinical Research at Nordsjællands Hospital and Professor of Public Health, Viral Infections and Epidemics at the University of Copenhagen. Her expertise spans public health, virology, epidemic preparedness, and research leadership, with a primary focus on the burden, prevention, and control of viral infections and epidemics. Professor Fischer has a clinical background in infectious diseases and is a specialist in preventive medicine. She received advanced training in epidemic intelligence, response, and preparedness through the prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

With more than 25 years of international experience, she has led and collaborated on interdisciplinary research initiatives aimed at strengthening epidemic prevention and control worldwide. She is co-founder of the European Network of Non-Polio Enteroviruses (ENPEN), established in 2017 to advance surveillance, research, and clinical management of enterovirus infections across Europe. Previously, she served as Director of Denmark’s WHO National Influenza Centre and the WHO National Reference Laboratories at Statens Serum Institut. Professor Fischer currently serves as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Helmholtz One Health Centre in Greifswald, Germany, and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health in Braunschweig, Germany. She is recently appointed as Chair of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). In 2020, she was selected as one of ten international experts to support the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in China.

Prof Fischer’s viral research interests include common viruses such as influenza, RSV, enteroviruses, poliovirus, and parechovirus. and tracing of epidemic and/or pandemic origins. She is a (co)-author of >300 peer-reviewed papers & reviews. H-index=63 https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=e8Hv9JUAAAAJ&hl=en



Kimberley Benschop

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, THE NETHERLANDS

Dr Kimberley Benschop is a molecular virologist at the Virology division of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Diagnostics and laboratory Screening (IDS), Centre for Infectious Disease Control (CiB) at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Currently she is heading the hepatitis B virus molecular surveillance and the enterovirus/parechovirus clinical surveillance programs. Dr Benschop is the lead coordinator for enterovirus/ parechovirus section of VIRO-TypeNed, which is a collaboration of laboratories working on epidemiological characterizations of viruses that enable efficient molecular surveillance, scientific expert at QCMD, a member of the management steering committee of the Enterovirus Non polio enterovirus Network (ENPEN), the host site supervisor for the ECDC European Public Health Microbiology Training path (EUPHEM) and the training coordinator for the IDS department.

Her work focuses on combining molecular virology with epidemiology for surveillance purposes, exploring new avenues in culture and molecular techniques, surveillance, antivirals, and artificial intelligence. She believes that collaboration and training of the next generation of researchers is key to good science and a healthy population. She did her PhD-research on the pathogenesis and epidemiology of parechoviruses, where her work was key in establishing parechoviruses as a major cause of CNS related disease in neonates, and implementation of their diagnosis worldwide. Her PhD also led to the discovery of two new parechovirus types.

She is a (co)-author of more than 100 peer reviewed papers and reviews. H-index= 26.



Katja Wolthers

Amsterdam University Medical Centre, THE NETHERLANDS

Katja Wolthers, MD PhD, is a senior clinical virologist (MD PhD), associate professor and Principal Investigator, head of the OrganoVIR Labs at the Department of Medical Microbiology, and founder of the Organoid Center of the Amsterdam UMC. She is an expert in organoids for virus research with a special focus on human picornaviruses. She has coordinated several EU consortia such as the innovative Horizon 2020 training program OrganoVIR: ‘Organoids for Virus research’ and the Next Generation Organ-on-Chip consortium GUTVIBRATIONS.

Her lab focuses on ‘human-in-the-lab’ infection models for virus pathogenesis and antiviral research using classic culture techniques and new organoid technology, in order to culture viruses and develop innovative animal-free models for virus research. In DETECTIVE, patient-derived gut organoids containing will be used to test broad-spectrum antivirals against human picornaviruses.



Adithya Sridhar

Amsterdam University Medical Centre, THE NETHERLANDS

Dr. Adithya Sridhar is an Assistant Professor & Principal Investigator at the OrganoVIR Labs in Amsterdam UMC (location AMC). He has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford and did his PhD in the lab-on-chip group of Prof. van den Berg at the University of Twente. Building on over 15 years of experience in developing complex in vitro cell culture models, he has established airway, gut, and brain organoid models for virology at Amsterdam UMC. Previously, he also contributed to the GUTVIBRATIONS project, where he served as Scientific Manager and Work Package leader.

In DETECTIVE, he will supervise a DC working on neuromuscular organoids for studying EV-induced paralysis.



Peter Simmonds

University of Turku, FINLAND

Professor Peter Simmonds, BM, PhD, FRCPath is Professor of Virology at the University of Turku, Finland, with further academic affiliations the University of Glasgow, UK and University College, London. Peter’s major research focuses on the molecular epidemiology, evolution and emergence of a wide range of human pathogenic viruses. This includes aetiological investigations of the role of known and recently discovered viruses in respiratory, enteric and neurological disease. He leads a large programme of research on transfusion-transmissible infections with the UK national blood service (NHSBT) with investigations ranging from genomic technology developments for screening, investigation of human viromes and impacts on transplant safety, a large programme on blood and platelet residual risk basic and developing strategies for addressing the threat of emerging pathogens.

Other active areas of research include virus genetics, evolution and pathogenesis, with particular interests in drivers of virus sequence change, and effects of structural and compositional parameters of RNA virus genomes on recognition and induction of innate antiviral responses. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses and plays an active role in the development of new classification approaches for viruses discovered in metagenomic screening.

Peter has written or co-authored 572 scientific papers and reviews papers listed on PubMed and over 30 book chapters. His h-index is 147 with 84,504 citations (Google Scholar)



Caroline Klint Johannesen

Nordsjællands Hospital in Copenhagen, DENMARK

Caroline Klint Johannesen is an epidemiologist at the Department of Clinical Research, Nordsjællands Hospital. Her research focuses on the burden, surveillance, and epidemiology of viral infections, with particular expertise in enteroviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and the use of nationwide health registries for infectious disease research. She has a background in Public Health Science and extensive experience in epidemiological methods, disease surveillance, and register-based research.

Caroline is a member of the management group of the European Non-Polio Enterovirus Network (ENPEN) and serves as Danish representative in the COST Action Pan-European One Health Network for Infectious Diseases Detection, Monitoring and Prevention (1HEALTH-NET).

Her research interests include the epidemiology and surveillance of enteroviruses and RSV, disease burden estimation, vaccine impact evaluation, digital health, and the application of advanced statistical and data science methods to infectious disease research. She has played a leading role in establishing and coordinating European surveillance activities for severe enterovirus infections and has contributed to the development of evidence supporting public health decision-making on viral disease prevention and control. In the DETECTIVE network, she is the coordinating data manager.

Caroline has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including 11 as first author, in journals such as The Lancet Regional Health Europe, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Eurosurveillance, and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Her current research focuses on hospital admissions associated with enterovirus infections in Denmark and Europe and on strengthening surveillance systems for emerging viral threats. She has an H-index of 13.



Cristina Andrés Vergés

University Hospital Vall Hebron, Barcelona SPAIN

Dr. Cristina Andrés Vergés is a highly qualified professional with a PhD in Microbiology. She has a background in Human Biology and Cellular Biology and extensive experience in clinical microbiology, molecular virology and genomic surveillance. She is currently working as a Biomedical Scientist in the Microbiology Department of Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Barcelona, where she has developed her research career since 2014.

Her research focuses on the molecular and genomic characterisation and surveillance of clinically relevant viruses, particularly respiratory and enteric viruses, including influenza viruses, rhinoviruses, enteroviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus and SARS-CoV-2. Her work integrates clinical microbiology, molecular epidemiology and viral genomics to investigate viral genetic diversity, evolution, reassortment, recombination and the emergence of clinically relevant viral variants. She has participated in numerous national and international collaborative projects involving genomic surveillance, respiratory pathogen surveillance, enterovirus-associated disease and the development of molecular and diagnostic approaches.

Her scientific production includes up to 70 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, with several publications focused on viral genomic surveillance and molecular epidemiology. She has also contributed to translational research on synthetic erythrocytes for pathogen surveillance and serological testing and is co-inventor of a patent for reagents and rapid methods for pathogen characterisation and serology testing. In addition to her research activity, she has provided supervision for master’s students working on molecular surveillance and genomic characterisation of enteroviruses, influenza viruses, rhinoviruses, human parechovirus and coronaviruses.



Andrés Antón Pagarolas

University Hospital Vall Hebron, Barcelona SPAIN

Dr Andrés Antón is a biologist and a clinical specialist in Microbiology and Parasitology. After almost ten years of professional experience in a private clinical laboratory, he joined the World Health Organization National Influenza Centre in Barcelona in 2006, where he contributed to the virological surveillance of influenza, as well as measles, rubella and mumps, within the surveillance networks coordinated by the Public Health Agency of Catalonia. He also completed his PhD at this institution. Since December 2012, he has been Head of the Respiratory Virus Unit at the Department of Microbiology of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona.

His main research interests focus on the virological surveillance of respiratory viruses, their genetic diversity and evolution, with particular emphasis on influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus, enteroviruses, human metapneumovirus and coronaviruses. His surveillance activities encompass both hospitalised patients and patients seen in primary care and are carried out in close collaboration with other public hospitals across Catalonia.

Building on his work in this field, he is currently responsible for the reference laboratory supporting the Public Health Agency of Catalonia in the surveillance of viruses causing acute respiratory infections. Since 2024, he has also been Head of the Virology Section at the same institution.He has participated in and led national and European research and surveillance projects. His main activities include genomic surveillance of influenza and other respiratory viruses, coordination of hospital-based RSV surveillance in Catalonia, surveillance of non-polio enteroviruses associated with respiratory infections, neurological disease and hand, foot and mouth disease, and participation in the European Non-Polio Enterovirus Network (ENPEN).

His scientific work has resulted in nearly 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals and numerous presentations at national and international scientific meetings.



Sami Oikarinen

Tampere University, FINLAND

Sami Oikarinen, PhD, Associate professor, is a virologist and research group leader at Tampere University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Finland. His research focuses on viral epidemiology and ecology, with particular emphasis on wastewater-based epidemiology, viral metagenomics, infection surveillance, and the links between viral infections and chronic diseases.

Oikarinen received his PhD in Virology from the University of Tampere in 2017. He was appointed Docent in Molecular Virology at the University of Tampere in 2019. He has served as a research group leader since 2019, first leading the Environmental Health Research Group and, since April 2025, the Medical Virology Research Group at Tampere University.

His research combines virology, molecular biology, metagenomics, bioinformatics and epidemiology to develop new approaches for monitoring infections and population health. A particular focus of his work is the use of wastewater as a population-level source of information on circulating viruses and infectious disease dynamics. His group has developed and applied whole-virome and targeted sequencing approaches to characterize viral communities in wastewater and to identify viral signals that can be linked to clinical, epidemiological and population-level health data. This work has contributed to the development of longitudinal and national-scale wastewater virology datasets and infrastructure for monitoring viral infections and population health.

Oikarinen has been involved in several large national and international research programmes and has served as principal investigator, consortium leader and work-package leader. Since 2020, he has secured more than €8 million in competitive research funding in PI and leadership roles.In addition to wastewater viromics, Oikarinen’s research interests include viral infections and immune-mediated diseases, particularly the potential role of enteroviruses and other viral infections in the development of type 1 diabetes. He has contributed to major international birth-cohort and clinical studies, including the TEDDY, TRIGR and DIPP studies, as well as vaccine and infection surveillance programmes. This work has provided a foundation for his broader interest in understanding how viral exposure, infection dynamics and host susceptibility contribute to disease development.

A central goal of Oikarinen’s current research is to develop a predictive and precision-based framework for infectious diseases by integrating information on environmental infection pressure, population susceptibility, host responses and clinical outcomes. By connecting population-level environmental surveillance with individual and clinical health data, his research aims to improve the prediction of infection risks and ultimately support more effective prevention and control of both infectious and infection-associated chronic diseases. This work contributes to the broader concept of P4 medicine, aiming to move from reactive treatment towards predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory approaches to health.

Oikarinen has supervised undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students and leads a multidisciplinary research team combining virology, epidemiology, sequencing technologies, metagenomics and computational biology. He is involved in national and international research collaborations and doctoral training networks, and actively contributes to the development of the next generation of researchers in virology and infectious disease research.

His overall research vision is to use viruses as measurable indicators of population health and environmental change and to integrate virological, genomic and health data to improve the prediction, prevention and control of infectious and chronic diseases. By linking environmental signals with population susceptibility, host responses and clinical outcomes, he aims to develop new approaches for understanding disease dynamics and moving towards more predictive and preventive healthcare.



Heikki Hyöty

Tampere University, FINLAND

Heikki Hyöty is working as the full-time professor of virology at the Tampere University, Finland. He has graduated in medicine and made his PhD in virology. His principal research interest is the role of microbes in immune-mediated diseases, particularly type 1 diabetes. His scientific contributions include the first prospective studies evaluating viral etiology of type 1 diabetes and leading to the identification of the association between enterovirus infections and initiation of the beta-cell damaging process.

He has contributed to the development of innovative research strategies, including prospective birth cohort studies, the collection of pancreas tissues from cadaveric organ donors with type 1 diabetes and studies in unique ecological settings in populations that share the same ancestry but live in contrasting environments in different countries. Heikki Hyöty has coordinated several EU projects, led other research consortia and has had an active role in international studies addressing the etiopathogenesis of type 1 diabetes.

He is one principal investigator of the Finnish DIPP study. He has also contributed to the development of new technologies and therapies, including antiviral drugs and novel vaccines, and has had a leading role in the first effort to develop human vaccines against diabetes-associated enteroviruses. He has been acknowledged by several awards for his scientific work.


Jutta Laiho

Tampere University, FINLAND

Jutta Laiho, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Medical Virology at Tampere University. Her research focuses on enterovirus infections, host immune responses and their role in immune-mediated diseases, with extensive experience in longitudinal birth-cohort studies and international multidisciplinary research collaborations. She has served as Scientific Manager of large EU-funded research consortia, coordinating multidisciplinary research across international partner networks. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Finnish DIPP study, one of the world’s longest-running prospective birth cohorts investigating the development of type 1 diabetes. Her work combines virology, seroepidemiology and translational research, with particular expertise in enterovirus detection, neutralizing antibody analyses and the integration of biological and epidemiological data.



Antonia Ho

University of Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM

Professor Antonia Ho is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research and an Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases. She is a clinician-scientist with expertise in the clinical epidemiology, pathogenesis, and management of respiratory viral infections, including influenza, SARS-CoV-2, RSV, as well as emerging infectious diseases.

Her research combines clinical studies, translational science, and public health approaches to understand why some individuals develop severe viral disease and to identify strategies for improving patient outcomes. She has extensive international research experience and has led studies across the UK and sub-Saharan Africa, with particular interests in global health, pandemic preparedness, and vulnerable populations. She also served as a Clinical Consultant to the World Health Organization Global Influenza Programme. 

Professor Ho obtained her MBChB from the University of Glasgow and completed postgraduate training in epidemiology and clinical research, including a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Liverpool focused on influenza in Malawi. She leads a multidisciplinary research programme investigating host-pathogen interactions, biomarkers of disease severity, and the prevention and treatment of viral respiratory infections. Through her research and supervisory roles, she is committed to mentoring the next generation of clinical and scientific researchers and fostering collaborative approaches to addressing global infectious disease challenges.



Ana Da Silva Filipe

University of Glasgow, UNITED KINGDOM

Dr Ana Da Silva Filipe is Head of Viral Genomics at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. She specialises in pathogen genomics, genomic surveillance, and the application of sequencing technologies to infectious disease research and public health. Through the European DETECTIVE Doctoral Network, she will supervise a PhD project investigating wastewater-based viral surveillance in Scotland. By integrating genomics, environmental surveillance, and data-driven approaches, the project aims to improve early warning systems for emerging infectious disease threats and strengthen pandemic preparedness through innovative population-level monitoring strategies.



Claire Smith

University College London, UNITED KINGDOM

Claire Smith is a Professor of Respiratory Infection and Epithelial Biology at University College London. She is internationally recognised for her work on primary human epithelial models of respiratory virus infection, having developed advanced air–liquid interface and organoid culture systems used to study RSV, influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and enteroviruses and to test antiviral efficacy in human-relevant models.

She leads the Living Airway Biobank at Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, which supports translational respiratory-virus research across the institution and internationally, and her recent publications include studies in Nature Communications and Nature Microbiology.In DETECTIVE she supervises DC14 on repurposing antivirals for severe viral infections in immunocompromised children, combining patient-derived organoid models with an analysis of the European regulatory pathway for clinical translation.

She hosts DC3 during their secondment at UCL and acts as the network’s Communication Manager. At UCL she also directs the MRes in Child Health and is an experienced supervisor of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.

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