Malavika completed her Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from Dayananda Sagar University, Bangalore, India, where she specialised in Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Genetics. She then pursued her Masters in Cancer Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, where her dissertation focused on targeting lactate metabolism in glioblastoma as a potential therapeutic strategy. Before joining the lab, she worked at bit.bio, Cambridge as a Research Assistant, where she was involved in generation and characterization of iPSC-derived human cell types. Her research interests centre on developing and applying human-relevant 3D model systems to study health and disease, with a broader interest in reducing reliance on conventional in vivo animal models through physiologically relevant human cell-based platforms.