Sara Kälvälä

I am an early stage researcher in AIVI/Lehtonen group. I’m currently working with hiPSC-derived midbrain organoids and studying their utility as in vitro models of Parkinson’s disease. The incidence of neurodegenerative diseases is expected to increase as the population ages, which in turn creates an increasing need for more effective treatments. To accelerate drug discovery efforts, improved in vitro models are needed. Brain organoids could provide a human-derived, physiologically relevant, high-throughput-compatible alternative to animal models and 2D cell culture.