My PhD was in biomaterials and tissue engineering and I have since then continued to work in the field of regenerative medicine. As a postdoc, I worked in a biomaterials group developing and evaluating cryogels as modular 3D microenvironments (scaffolds) for regenerative medicine, which ended up in a collaboration with a Muscle biology group where I then continued as a postdoc. To date, I am working as a researcher and a project manager in the Lung biology team, with a focus on understanding how the microenvironment affect cellular responses in chronic lung diseases and how we can affect it. Improving treatment of chronic lung diseases is an essential task in medicine due to a huge socioeconomic impact with severe suffering and increasing prevalence. Current knowledge of the lung inherent capacity to repair epithelial damage is limited, but evidence shows that epithelial cell function and regeneration are dependent on the interaction with mesenchymal cells, which in chronic lung diseases are deregulated.

If you find any of the projects below of interest, please get in touch.

Projects I am involved in:

• Cell-instructive biomaterials for treating lung disease

Our vision is to activate regeneration in the border zone between destroyed tissue areas and remains of healthy tissue in patients with COPD, by inserting a biomaterial containing factors and cells able to “instruct” lung resident stem/progenitor cells. The project is a large and highly cross-disciplinary consortium with expertise in cell- and matrix biology, bioengineering, lung medicine, and mass spectrometry.

• T-REX: Tissue Regeneration & Exercise

This project involves basic researchers together with clinicians, physiotherapists, and engineers. The main objective of the study is to identify mechanisms for lung regeneration in patients with COPD after supervised exercise training and secondly long-term COVID-19 infection. Our hypothesis is that adjusted exercise training improves disease outcome in these patients by ameliorating inherent remodelling processes linked to oxidative stress, inflammatory and/or immunological pathways in the lung. These process are studied in our ex vivo lung models, applying cyclic stretch to the 3D cell cultures. Along the way, we also expect to identify (or validate) biomarkers mirroring systemic processes such as reduced inflammation and ameliorating the epithelial barrier in these patients. These events may additionally act as potential targets for interventions.

• The epithelial-mesenchymal cell interactome in the alveolar niche – balancing remodelling in chronic lung disease

The overall aim is to functionally characterise mesenchymal cell subpopulations in the alveolar niche with regard to their role in fibrosis/fibrosis resolution and their interaction with epithelial cells in a 3D human lung ECM ex vivo model. Informed by these findings, we hope to identify new therapeutic targets to halt and reverse the fibrotic progression in IPF and ultimately, restore alveoli and lung function.

• Identifying early signs of permanent lung damage in COVID-19

In this project we aim to identify biomarkers in long-term COVID-19 patients to predict chronic lung fibrosis by exploring common disease pathways with IPF. First, biomarkers present in serum samples from COVID-19 and IPF patients that mirror key pathological changes in lung tissue such as ECM turnover and altered cell activity will be identified. Secondly, we aim to identify signalling pathways connected to the structural remodelling seen in COVID-19 patients that develop fibrosis.