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Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Sciences

Profile for Prof. Helena Nevalainen

Research Interests

Research interests are focused on (molecular) biology and enzymology of biotechnologically important filamentous fungi, in particular Trichoderma reesei. T. reesei offers a powerful system for efficient expression of foreign gene products originating from other micro-organisms, plants and animals. Other research interests include biological roles of cell walls in fungi and molecular prospecting of the environment for novel bioactivities.

The research topics are:

  1. Development of vectors and hosts for efficient expression and secretion of gene products from T. reesei. Expression of thermophile enzyme genes in Trichoderma.
  2. Proteomes of Trichoderma. Mapping of cell wall-associated proteins in Trichoderma by 2-D electrophoresis. Emphasis is on the identification of proteins related to secretion and heterologous gene expression.
  3. Molecular prospecting of the environment. Screening of novel enzyme activities and their genes from Antarctic fungi and unculturable microorganisms.

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Selected Publications

Professor Nevalainen has over 120 publications in refereed journals; 50 of which were published in the last 5 years. The ten most significant publications of the last 5 years are given below:

  1. Nandan Deshpande, Marc R. Wilkins, Nicolle Packer and Helena Nevalainen (2008). Protein glycosylation pathways in filamentous fungi. Glycobiology 2008 18: 626-637.
  2. Jasmine Grinyer, Liisa Kautto, Mathew Traini, Junior Te’o, Peter Bergquist and Helena Nevalainen (2007). Proteome mapping of the Trichoderma reesei 20S proteasome. Curr. Genet. 51(2):79-88.
  3. B. R. Herbert, J. Grinyer, J. T. McCarthy, M. Isaacs, E. J. Harry, H. Nevalainen, M. D. Traini, B. Schulz, M. Laver, A. R. Goodall, J. Packer, J. L. Harry and K.L. Williams. Improved 2-DE of micro-organisms after acidic extraction. Electrophoresis 27: 1630-1640, 2006.
  4. K. M. H. Nevalainen V. S. J. T'eo and P. L. Bergquist. Heterologous protein expression in filamentous fungi. Trends in Biotechnology 23: 468-474, 2005.
  5. N.C. Curach, V.S.J. Te’o, M.D. Gibbs, P.L. Bergquist and K.M.H. Nevalainen (2004). Isolation, characterization and expression of the hex1 gene from Trichoderma reesei. Gene 331:133-140
  6. M. Penttilä, C. Limon and H. Nevalainen. Biotechnology of Trichoderma . Handbook of Fungal Biotechnology (Mycology Series 20), D.K. Arora, P.D. Bridge, D. Bhatnagar (eds), Marcel Dekker, NY, pp. 413-427, 2004 .
  7. H. Nevalainen, V. Te'o, T. Pakula and M. Penttilä. Heterologous gene expression in filamentous fungi-a holistic view. In : Applied Mycology & Biotechnology. An International Series. Volume 5, Genes and Genomics. D.K. Arora and G.G. Kchachatourians (eds), Elsevier Science B.V., Netherlands . pp. 211-237, 2005.
  8. J. Grinyer, M. McKay, H. Nevalainen and Ben R. Herbert (2004). Fungal Proteomics: initial mapping of biological control strain Trichoderma harzianum . Current Genetics 45: 163-169.
  9. J. Grinyer, M. McKay, B. Herbert and H. Nevalainen. Fungal Proteomics: mapping the mitochondrial proteins of a Trichoderma harzianum strain applied for biological control. Current Genetics 45:170-175, 2004.
  10. A. Khan, K. Williams, M. Molloy and H. Nevalainen. Purification and characterization of a serine protease and chitinases from Paecilomyces lilacinus and detection of chitinase Activity on 2D gels. Protein Expression and Purification 32: 210-220, 2003.
  11. A.J. Holmes, M.R. Gillings, B.S. Nield, B.C. Mabbutt, K.M.H. Nevalainen and H.W. Stokes (2003). The gene cassette metagenome is a basic resource for bacterial genome evolution. Applied and Environmental Microbioogy 5:383-394.

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Contact Details

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Qualifications

BSc (Genetics)
University of Helsinki
MSc (Genetics)
University of Helsinki
PhD (Genetics)
University of Helsinki