Solothurn, Solothurn, Switzerland
My vision is to consider the central nervous and the cardiovascular systems as interacting complexes and not as separated entities, a perspective often neglected in both field. My research hypothesizes that blood-circulating factors influence cerebral vessel health and thereby serve either as resilience or aggravating factors to neurodegenerative diseases. To answer this hypothesis, I developed unique three-dimensional models replicating the human brain vasculature to study neurodegenerative disease in vitro and help to the development of novel therapeutics. My distinctive is recognized by both presentations across the dementia and cardiovascular communities and granted funding.
My role as group leader at the institute of clinical chemistry is to pursue my own research program studying the role of lipoproteins on the cerebrovasculature in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Expert in radioprotection for the institutes of Clinical chemistry and Immunology since 2021 Biosafety officer for the Institute of Clinical chemistry, research location since 2022 Wrote and helped to prepare competitive applications for research funding Established local and international collaborations Supervised and trained students (3 PhDs, 3 Masters and 1 Bachelor) and 1 technician Teach one block course for the University of Zurich (BME303) since 2020. Main Achievements: Authored several papers as primary or last author. Obtained two operating funds from the BrightFocus foundation and the Synapsis foundation as PI, 1 as co-applicant (Swiss Heart Foundation) and 1 award (Lipid Award AGLA) for a total of over 650,000 CHF
My role as postdoctoral fellow is to develop 3D in vitro models of the human brain vasculature with which to study the role of lipoproteins on the development of Alzheimer’s disease. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Developed a functional in vitro brain vessel composed of primary human endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, astrocytes and IPSC derived neurons. Developed the first in vitro vascular model Alzheimer's disease (cerebral amyloid angiopathy) Developed a neurovascular unit cell culture model on a chip. Wrote and helped to prepare competitive applications for research funding Wrote and managed human ethic and radioactivity protocols Established local and international collaborations Supervised and trained 7 students (2 graduate and 5 undergraduate) and 3 technicians Main Achievements: Published 14 papers, 4 of which as first authors; Filed 1 patent; Gave or have been invited to give 15 oral presentations, notably to 3 Gordon Research Conferences, the PepTalk 2018 and the Winter Brain Conference Research; Secured 4.5 years of salary support, obtained two operating grants as PI ($350,000 over 4 years) and two as co-applicant ($300,000)
My role as doctoral student was to develop a 3D in vitro model of atherosclerotic lesion and analyzed lipoprotein transport through endothelial cells. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Developed a functional in vitro artery composed of endothelial cells and myofibroblasts to study atherosclerosis formation (lipid accumulation and monocyte binding) Isolated lipoproteins and leukocytes from blood Measured protein binding and transport through endothelial cells using radioactivity and fluorescence Supervised 1 laboratory class and helped to supervise 1 master student Main Achievements Published 5 papers, 3 of which as first authors; Gave 3 oral presentations. Thesis title: Inflammatory stimuli influence HDL binding and transport through endothelial cells and Tissue engineering as a 3D model to study atherosclerosis
My role as scientific collaborator was to analyze the molecular responses of Arabidopsis thaliana and Vitae vitis to pathogens. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Maintained sterile and non-sterile plant culture Measured plant response to pathogens using biochemistry methods Developed a clone bank of specific genes for absolute qRT-PCR quantification Main Achievements Published 1 peer review and 1 conference papers