George Vogelaar

George Vogelaar | SkinTERM

Helmholtz Centre Munich


ESR 7 fellow

Work package 3

Organoids

Fibroblasts

Lineage

Background 

George Vogelaar is from the Netherlands, where he gained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences at the Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR).

PhD project: Fibroblast Lineage Research by means of Human Skin Organoids

ESR7 uses human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived skin organoids to study the human fibroblast lineages accountable for scarless skin regeneration. In contrast to scarring in adults, injured fetal skin regenerates the original connective tissue foundation of the skin, without scarring. In a cellular genealogy view of scarring, the coexistence of different fibroblast subsets with distinct transcriptomic profiles and physiological functions results in distinct outcome of wound repair; scarring or regeneration. The main objective of this project is to determine the molecular mechanisms governing fibroblast development and differentiation and “scarless regeneration” in humans, at lineage level, and develop a knowledge basis for therapeutic strategies to inhibit scarring and fibrosis programs, which provide a novel cellular paradigm for scar development during ontogeny, with evolutionary perspectives and clinical implications.

Objectives
  1. Establish a human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived human skin organoid model to characterize the trajectory of human fibroblast development in order to monitor the differentiation process of human fibroblasts with lineage specification.
  2. Genetic or pharmacological manipulation of the candidate genes obtained from Objective 1.
  3. Verify the findings from Objective 2 with an ex vivo skin organoid model
Supervisors

Contact: George.Vogelaar#helmholtz-muenchen.de

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