People

Pauliina joined Functional Embryo Genomics Lab in 2019, when the lab was only taking its very first steps. Pauliina works on her PhD thesis project focusing on micro-RNA biology in early human embryo development. In their first paper Pauliina profiled small RNAs in consecutive stages from human GV oocytes to 8-cell stage embryos (). 

Sonja joined the lab in autumn 2020 and received a doctoral researcher position at the Doctoral Program in Biomedicine (DPMB) in January 2022. Sonja's PhD thesis focuses on the nuclear organization of human pre-implantation embryos. 

Heli joined the group in January 2023 to keep the lab organized and rocking n rolling. Heli actively participates in our research projects and is especially skilled in running FACS and keeping our human pluripotent stem cell cultures happy.  

Roosa developed an interest in early human embryo development during her bachelor’s studies
in Molecular Biosciences, which she continued by pursuing a master’s degree in the Cellular and
Developmental Biology study track within Genetics and Molecular Biosciences. She joined the
Functional Embryo Genomics Lab in 2024, where she completed her master’s thesis
entitled “Optimization of a blastocyst-like in vitro 3D model, blastoid, from human naïve embryonic
stem cells.” Following this, she worked as a grant researcher and contributed to two publications
(McCreery et al., 2025, and Paloviita et al., submitted). In 2025, she was accepted into the Doctoral
Programme in Biomedicine and began her doctoral research, focusing on how mechano-osmotic
cues modulate cellular organization and gene regulation via lamin–chromatin interactions during
early human embryo development.