The development and evaluation of stem cell tracking agents

A four year PhD Studenship to develop and evaluate cell tracking agents is available to an outstanding and highly motivated candidate. The interdisciplinary project is part of a newly awarded UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP) ‘Safety Hub’ (www.ukrmp.org.uk). The overall aim of the Hub is to enable clinical translation of safe and effective regenerative medicine therapies through integration of the therapeutic safety expertise of the MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science (based at the University of Liverpool) with cutting edge imaging technologies, nanochemistry, stem cell biology and clinical methodologies. We will develop methods to monitor the biodistribution and behaviour of transplanted cells in well-characterised kidney and liver disease models using innovative nanochemistry and molecular imaging, and will thus relate the disposition of administered cells to the physiological, pharmacological and pathological responses of the host tissues that the cells populate.

The main barrier to evaluating the safety of stem cell therapies at present is the inability to monitor the tissues and organs that stem cells populate following transplantation. In order to check for adverse reactions, we need to know where the cells have gone. This knowledge will also help us understand how the cells mediate their positive effects. A key aim of this project is to generate novel human kidney stem/progenitor cell (hKSPC) reporter lines to enable the cells to be tracked in living animals using a range of state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Following extensive in vitro analysis to determine the effects of reporter gene expression on the behaviour of KSPCs, suitable lines will be injected into mice with induced kidney injury, and their biodistribution and behaviour will be monitored using various imaging modalities, including photoacoustic imaging (PAI), which will be used to image KSPCs expressing the PAI reporter, tyrosinase. PAI is an emerging non-invasive imaging technology that integrates high optical contrast with high ultrasound resolution.

The project will be jointly supervised by Dr. Patricia Murray and Dr Raphaël Lévy (Institutes of Translational Medicine and Integrative Biology, Liverpool). Candidates should have an outstanding academic record and hold a Bachelor and/or a Masters degree in a relevant area of Biology.

Applications including a full CV, contact details of two academic referees and a cover letter stating why the applicant is interested in this position, should be submitted by e-mail to [Email Address Removed] and [Email Address Removed] indicating the reference ‘Regenerative Medicine PhD’ in the subject line.

The deadline for application is 28th June 2013.

Informal inquires by highly motivated applicants should be addressed to Dr Patricia Murray ([Email Address Removed]) and Dr. Raphaël Lévy ([Email Address Removed]).