Kai Krohn

Biography

Professor Kai Krohn completed his medical training (MD) at the Medical School of the University of Helsinki, Finland in 1962 and obtained his PhD in 1968. During 1962 – 1968 he served as intern at University Children´s Hospital, and at the Department of Pathology. In 1970 he obtained his degree of Specialist in Pathology (Boards). During 1962 – 1969 his research concentrated in auto-immunity, and he published several papers on clinical immunological disease, notably of chronic autoimmune gastritis and on the autoimmune syndrome (APECED). Prof.. Krohn spent his post-doctoral fellowship at New York Medical Hospital, Cornell University and at the Virus laboratory in New York Blood center, with Dr. Alfred M. Prince. They characterized the newly found virus for serum hepatitis, the Hepatitis B-virus and with the company Electronucleonics, took the first steps in the development of the HBV vaccine. After his post-doctoral period, Dr. Krohn was elected to become Assistant Professor of Pathology at Helsinki University and in 1974 he was elected to be the first Professor of Pathology at the newly established Medical School at Tampere University. During his years at Tampere University, he served as the Chairman of the University Council and as the Vice-Dean twice. In 1995 he was elected to become the first Director of the newly established Institute of Medical Biotechnology (IMT). In addition to the Hepatitis B- virus studies and participation in the development of HBV vaccine, Prof. Krohn has worked in HIV vaccine development. He spent three years as a Senior Scientist at NIH, working with Dr. Robert C. Gallo and his team. He has continued his studies on APECED, jointly with Dr. Pärt Peterson from the University of Tartu, Estonia.

Research Interest

Pathology