Doctoral Researcher Roya presented her work on the development of biofilm models at Microbiology Days 2026

Doctoral researcher Roya Khoshtinatnikkhoy presented her work “From Microplate to Catheter: Development and Optimization of Biofilm Models” at Microbiology Days 2026, held at Viikki Campus, University of Helsinki, in May 2026.

Roya's work is part of the project "Innovative therapeutics and drug discovery tools to battle against antimicrobial resistant biofilms in urinary tract infections", which aims to develop novel therapeutics and screening tools to combat antibiotic-resistant biofilms associated with urinary tract infections.

Roya shared recent findings from her doctoral research on the development of a catheter-based model to study biofilms formed by uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC). The model is designed to better mimic clinically relevant conditions and support the discovery of new strategies to prevent and treat biofilm-associated urinary tract infections.

The project is funded by the Research Council of Finland through a Proof-of-Concept Grant (No. 365302, 2025–2026).