Sara Owad

Sara Owad is a PhD candidate at MIMETAS affiliated with the University of Utrecht and part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie MENTOR Consortium, where her research focuses on developing advanced human-relevant kidney-on-a-chip models for drug discovery and disease research, with a particular interest in polycystic kidney disease. Her work combines organ-on-a-chip technology with molecular analyses, advanced imaging, and functional characterization to develop 3D renal models that better capture the complexity of human kidney physiology. She aims to apply these models to support more predictive preclinical drug safety testing and to explore the potential of patient-derived models for personalized medicine. Sara is particularly interested in how microphysiological systems can bridge the gap between conventional in vitro models and human disease, enabling new approaches to study disease mechanisms and therapeutic responses.