Part Peterson PhD

Pärt Peterson is Professor of Molecular Immunology at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He graduated in molecular biology from the University of Tartu and defended his PhD on molecular immunology in 1996 at the University of Tampere, Finland. He spent his postdoctoral period in the Institute of Medical Technology where his research interest focused on the Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) gene, the key factor in central thymic tolerance. He also co-discovered DANN methyltransferase 3-like (DNMT3L) gene, a regulator of DNA methylation and epigenetic imprinting. He obtained the degree of Docent at the University of Tampere and in 2000 became a Fellow of the Finnish Academy. In 2003-2009 he was supported by The Wellcome Trust as International Senior Fellow and started a research group as Professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Tartu, and later on in 2008, as Professor of Molecular Immunology. In 2009 he was elected as the Research Professor of the Academy of Estonia. Pärt is the recipient of the Estonian Science Prize (2008), and has more than 100 research publications on various aspects of immunology and molecular biology.