In this special episode of the Stem Cell Podcast, we speak with three PhD students from different parts of the world about their research in and outside of the lab.

Naveed Tavakol (pictured, right) is a biomedical engineering PhD student in the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering at Columbia University under the advisement of Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic. As a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow, he is working on translational approaches to integrated organ-on-a-chip systems, with a specific focus on the hematopoietic system.

Nathasia Mudiwa Muwanigwa (pictured, left) is a PhD researcher in the Developmental and Cellular Biology group at the Luxembourg Center of Systems Biomedicine. She uses midbrain-specific organoids to model and study the molecular and cellular changes that occur in the midbrain during the progression of Parkinson’s disease. She is also the co-founder of Visibility STEM Africa.

Sarthak Sinha (pictured, center) has been working in Dr. Jeff Biernaskie’s Lab at the University of Calgary since the ninth grade. Now as an MD-PhD Candidate and a Vanier Scholar, his doctoral project utilizes single-cell genomics to understand mechanisms driving skin fibrosis and regeneration across different mammals.

Using Organoids for COVID-19 Drug Screening – Researchers have developed lung and colonic organoid models to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and perform drug screening to identify candidate therapeutics.

Making Airway Stem Cells from Patients’ Cells – iPSCs were directly differentiated into airway basal cells, a population resembling the stem cells of the airway epithelium.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Nathasia Mudiwa Muwanigwa, Sarthak Sinha, and Naveed Tavakol.

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