Stem cells

Stem cells are defined as self-renewing cells with the ability to develop into any cell. Having these properties, they can be an unlimited source, either for replacing lost or diseased tissues or for studying disease-mechanisms with the potential development of new therapies in the future. Read about Scientia Fellows’ stem cell research below.

Denis Reis de Assis

Image may contain: Person, Forehead.

Country of origin: Brazil
Host: Ole Andreassen and Srdjan Djurovic
Group: NORMENT - Centre of Excellence
Thematic area: Psychiatric Molecular Genetic
Project title: Modelling schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with hiPSC neurons and cortical spheroids

My project

Psychiatric disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite being distinct diseases, schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) share a number of mechanisms and risk alleles. Therapies based on drugs with more efficiency and reduced side effects are still lacking. The advent of iPS cells derived from patients and its neural differentiation has enabled to access human neural cells bearing molecular mechanisms of the disease. We will use iPS cell-derived neural stem cells, neurons, and brain organoids to identify mechanisms and characterize cellular phenotypes involved in the pathology of SCZ and BD.

Gerard Boix Lemonche

Gerard Boix Lemonche

Country of origin: Spain
Host: Prof. Goran Petrovski
Group: Center for Eye Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Clinical Medicine
Thematic area: Regenerative medicine, Ophthalmology
Project title: Bacteria- and fungus- resistant 3D bioprinted human cornea for clinical transplantation purposes

My project

Human corneal blindness severely affects the quality of life of millions of people worldwide. Currently, corneal transplantation is a promising way to treat blindness, being one of the most successful surgeries performed in the human body. Transplants are, however, at serious risk for infection and inflammation, which can cause vision loss or blindness. A desperate shortage of donor corneas urges the need to develop engineered corneal equivalents with anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties for restoring vision. Antimicrobial Peptides have been demonstrated to be good molecular modifications in tissue engineering due to their broad antimicrobial/fungal action.

To avoid this issue, complex 3D bioprinted hemi-corneal tissue equivalents with anti-microbial/fungal properties anatomically analogous to a human cornea will be produced.

Natasha Josifovska

Natasha Josifovska

Country of origin: North Macedonia
Host: Prof. Goran Petrovski
Group: Center for Eye Research, Institute of Clinical Medicine
Thematic area: Stem cells, Ophthalmology
Project title: Generation of clinical-grade stem cell-laden 3D bioprint equivalents of the human cornea

My project

Human corneal blindness, due to injury or disease, severely affects the quality of life of millions of people worldwide. Currently, corneal transplantation is a promising way to treat blindness, being one of the most successful surgery types in the human body. A desperate shortage of donor corneas necessitates development of engineered corneal equivalents for restoring vision. 3D bioprinting is an emerging technology for development of scaffolds and manufacturing of stable and scalable corneal tissue equivalents for clinical applications.

In this project, complex 3D bioprinted clinical-grade hemi-corneal tissue equivalents will be produced with anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic properties and transplanted into organ cultured corneas. The tissue equivalents will be anatomically analogous to a human cornea with help of human stem cells, smart biomaterials, and collagen scaffolds.

3D bioprinting of the cornea is a potential solution that can alleviate the shortage of donor tissue with clear positive societal impact and benefits in treating corneal blindness.

Santosh Gupta

Portrait of Fatih Kizilaslan

Country of origin: India
Host: Prof. Goran Petrovski
Group: Center for Eye Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Clinical Medicine
Thematic area: Stem Cells, Ophthalmology
Project title: Clinical grade iPSC-based Stage Specific Derivation of Retinal Pigment Epithelial (iRPE)- Patch for Cell Therapy in Age-related Macular Degeneration.

My project

Degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) significantly contributes to the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in humans – the leading cause of permanent vision loss in the elderly. The major drawback in clinical application is differentiation strategies employed in RPE derivation which have limitations like extended differentiation time and high cost. My work proposes a stage specific differentiation strategy for the derivation of iRPEs from clinical grade induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) which will be cost and time efficient. Using the developed protocol, RPE patches will be fabricated and subsequently implanted in a minipig model to study the safety and efficacy of such transplanted cellularized patches.

Development of a cost and time efficient derivation strategy for iRPE would be beneficial for large number of patients suffering from AMD and requires RPE transplantation as a treatment module. This work may also form a developmental framework which can be used for in vitro modelling of RPE degeneration and its role in AMD pathogenesis and consequently development of potential therapeutic strategies.