Research

Human development starts from a single fertilized oocyte that has the potential to develop into a fetus and extraembryonic tissues supporting the fetal development.

After fertilisation, following the next few cell divisions, maternal qualities of the oocyte will be decommissioned and embryonic qualities will take over. Early embryo development involves dramatic changes for example in epigenetics landscapes and transcriptomics. How are these first developmental steps orchestrated? And why development sometimes fails?

We are a small team of scientists passionate to ask and solve questions about early human embryo development. Our mission is to generate, integrate, and interpret information about human embryos and cellular model systems using the latest technologies and experimental approaches. This will allow us to better understand human embryo development.

The projects are run in close collaboration with Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) Reproduction Medicine Unit.
Our laboratory is located at Meilahti campus, Helsinki Biomedicum 1 building. The campus has excellent core facilities for carrying out our projects. We collaborate nationally and internationally to pursue new questions about early human development and related topics.