The ESR will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Heidelberg University (D), the oldest university in Germany. Specifically, the ESR will be joining the Cell Therapy Lab at the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunology, associated to the German Red Cross Blood Donor Services Baden-Württemberg – Hessen.

The role of the ESR in this project is to contribute towards understanding the therapeutic efficacy (mechanisms of action, MoA) of MSC in kidney diseases. The project will be conducted in collaboration with the other 3 ESRs at Heidelberg University and TICEBA, using their proprietary ABCB5 selected skin-derived MSCs.         

The specific tasks in the project are:

• Assess the safety and efficacy of S-and A-MSCs and their secretome (secreted factors and extracellular vesicles) in a mouse IRI model and investigate MoA in histological sections and optically cleared organs (with other ESR at UHEI).
• Use lentiviral transduction to introduce reporter genes or perform genetic engineering to verify MoA mechanistically.
• Apply OMICs (next generation sequencing and proteomics) to compare MSCs and assess their renoprotective effects.