In this position the ESR will be employed by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and enrolled as a PhD student at the University of Liverpool (UK). The ESR’s role in this project will be to characterise umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) and contribute towards understanding their therapeutic efficacy in kidney diseases. More specifically:

• Characterise UC-MSCs in regard to their immunophenotype, proliferation rate, colony forming ability, differentiation potential and in vitro immunomodulatory capacity.
• Determine how these properties are affected by culture media and novel bioengineered culture substrates.
• Apply genetic engineering methods to introduce reporter genes for bioluminescence and nuclear imaging.
• Assess their therapeutic efficacy by testing their ability to ameliorate tubular cell injury using an in vitro ciPTEC-based ischemia-reperfusion injury model (in collaboration with Utrecht University).
• Compare UC-MSC with those derived from other sources such as bone marrow.
• Collaborate with scientists developing in vivo models.