Hi! I’m Aino Elomaa, and I started at the beginning of June as Marketing Coordinator at City-Lab and Customer Service Specialist at the Biomedicum shop. I recently completed a Master’s degree in Biomedicine at the University of Turku, complemented by minor studies in Business Administration.

For the past two years, I have worked in ovarian cancer research. I conducted my master’s thesis in Anniina Färkkilä’s research group, where I developed a 3D cell culture method for patient-derived cancer cells. This model aims to mimic the ovarian cancer microenvironment and could be used for immuno-oncological drug testing. Through this work, I gained hands-on experience in cell culture techniques and flow cytometry.

After completing my thesis, I continued my research work in Färkkilä’s and Anna Vähärautio’s research groups as a Laboratory and Clinical Sample Coordinator. In the laboratory, I was responsible for archiving patient samples for research purposes and also had the opportunity to work with organoid cultures, DNA and RNA extractions, and single-cell sequencing. Outside the laboratory, I took part in organizing a symposium and visited the City-Lab site weekly to place orders, collect products, or seek advice.

What attracted me to this role was the opportunity to combine marketing with an understanding of research products and researchers’ needs. Equally important, however, was knowing that City-Lab has a fantastic team, and I am excited to be part of this community.

See you at Biomedicum, or you’ll hear from me in the newsletters!