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Background 

Masi is from Iran, where she received her BSc in Medical Laboratory Science at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, and an MSc in Human Genetics at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Shiraz. She gained valuable working experience as a research assistant at the Pasteur Institute of Iran for about three years. During this time, she participated in projects that gave her ample practical experience in cellular and molecular techniques.

PhD project: Creating and optimizing proto-hair follicles for incorporation into skin constructs

Masi is a PhD candidate at Durham University, Durham, UK. As an ESR, her research aims to enhance the inductive powers of follicle dermal cells and combine them with epithelial cells to create proto-follicles for skin constructs. One of her research tasks will be to optimize the induction and hair follicle development of proton-follicles, as not all hair follicle dermal cells are equally good at making follicles. This will be achieved by molecular and cellular manipulation of the dermal and epithelial cell components, which will provide greater understanding of the mechanism behind follicle induction, give insight into individual variation and which parameters are important and allows the creation of an in vitro model to test for inductivity.

Masi will visit to partners during her PhD studies in Switzerland for a longer period of time; Zurich University to incorporate the hair model into a skin construct and the CUTISS company to develop a standard operating procedure for the developed technology.

Objectives

1. Create human proto-follicle structures in skin models that are able to develop into new hair follicles in vivo.
2. Optimise the inductivity and follicle development by these proto-follicles.
3. Assess if and to what extent the incorporation of functional hair follicles in skin models influences their cellular and extracellular environment.

Supervisors

• Prof.dr. Colin Jahoda
• Prof. Carrie Ambler
• Dr. Timothy James Hawkins

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Contact: Masoume.Yousefi#durham.ac.uk

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