Project description: We have an internship position available for a UU GSLS MSc student for their MSc research internship (6 to 9 months) for the NC-CHOICE project. In this project you will contribute to elucidating signaling pathways mediating intervertebral disc regeneration. In parallel, the biomolecular factors in the these signaling pathways will be encoded in mRNA and tested in a lipid nanoparticle delivery platform as therapeutic to treat intervertebral disc degeneration. You will use cutting-edge techniques including in vitro and ex vivo intervertebral disc models and developing lipid nanoparticles for mRNA delivery. You will experience:

• Cell culture models of mild and severe disc degeneration
• LNPs preparation (microfluidic system NanoAssemblr)
• LNPs characterization techniques (DLS, ELS, RiboGreen and Cholesterol Assay)
• Immunocytochemistry
• Gene expression analysis (RT-PCR)

Supervisors: dr. Aida Moreira and dr. Chantal Voskamp

Preferred starting date: to be discussed

Eligibility: students enrolled at the GSLS at Utrecht University. Especially suitable for students enrolled in the programs: Regenerative Medicine and Technology (RMT), Drug innovation, Bio Inspired Innovation (BII), or Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences (MCLS).

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