More than 15 million babies are born preterm every year - before 37 weeks of a typical 40 week pregnancy - and are at risk of long-term disability due to brain damage. Disturbances in the brain's growth, such as through premature birth, can result in cerebral palsy, severely impaired cognitive functions and disorders such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
To 'rebuild' the damaged areas of the brain, the use human mesenchymal stem cells (H-MSC) will be investigated. Human mesynchymal stemcells (MSC) have the unique capability to regenerate damage cells, next to regulating inflammatory responses. Together with fifteen partners from eight countries, involving different professionals such as clinicians, researchers and healthcare organisations specialised in neonatology in both Europe and Australia the application of MSC will be investigated. Towards clinical application various doses, timings and routes of administration will be tested in several animal models and in vitro culture systems.
The Radboudumc task will be to characterize the immunoregulating and regenerative potential of H-MSC from different sources including cord blood, endometrium and placenta, in
in vitro culture systems. In collaboration with Maastricht UMC they will examine the
in vivo regenerative potential of H-MSC in a sheep model for preterm birth.
In this 4 year PhD project, we will use state of the art techniques such as multiparameter flowcytometry, single cell epigenetic programming, multiplex secretome analysis using Flex Map3D. For this project, we are looking for an ambitious PhD candidate. This four-year project should culminate in a PhD thesis.
Read more about the project.
Tasks and responsibilities
- You will be responsible for the planning, organization and the execution of the experiments.
- You will communicate the results to the supervisors, present data on international meetings, and write scientific papers.