Nuria Montserrat, Ph.D.
ICREA Research Professor
Pluripotency for organ regeneration (PR Lab)
Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)
nmontserrat@ibecbarcelona.eu
Biography:
I became interested in organ regeneration and stem cells during my master and PhD training (with stages in three prestigious Universities and research centers in Spain, Switzerland and France) that finished in 2006. The same year I got a Postdoctoral fellowship from the Fundaçao para a Ciência e Tecnología (Portugal). In 2007 I was hired as a post-doctoral researcher at at the Hospital of Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. In 2008 I moved to the Center of Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona (CMRB), under the direction of Dr. Juan Carlos Izpsiúa supported by a Juan de la Cierva fellowship. There, I participated in developing strategies for the generation and banking of new induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In 2010 I first co-authored how to reprogram cord blood stem cells for the first time (Nature Protocols, 2010). Then, I reasoned that iPSCs could be obtained by means of safe strategies with new factors. The work resulted in a high-impact publication in Cell Stem Cell (2013), in where I am the first co-author. I also collaborated in other projects and performed different stays at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for my participation in several studies: to characterize the genomic integrity of human iPSCs (Nature 2012) as well as in the differentiation of iPSCs towards different lineages (Stem Cells 2011; Nature 2012; Nature Methods 2012, Nature Cell Biology 2013, Nature Communications 2014). I have also participated in the generation of platforms for the study of disease progression by means of iPSCs (Nature 2012, Nature Communications 2014). Always fascinated to understand the nature of regeneration and developmental processes, I then co-authored how the reactivation of endogenous pathways can be artificially reactivated and promote heart regeneration in mammals (Cell Stem Cell, 2014). We have participated and led different works in the generation of kidney organoids from human pluripotent stem cells (Nature Cell Biology, 2013; Nature Materials 2019) as innovative applications for heart engineering (Biomaterials, 2016). My expertise in the fields of somatic reprogramming and organ regeneration helped me to develop a massive project that was selected for funding from the European Research Council (ERC) within the call of ERC Starting Grant from 2014. In January 2015 I became junior group leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and Ramon y Cajal (first ranked candidate, 100/100 points in Biomedicine) in order to build my own research group. From January 2019 I became ICREA Research Professor and Senior Group Leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) leading. From 2012-2014 I combined my research activities with those related to managing (I was Deputy Director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine of Barcelona under the direction of Dr. Juan Carlos Izpsiúa), nowadays I am Deputy Director of Clinical Translation and Innovation at IBEC (from 2018).
Topic title: Engineering solutions for human pluripotent stem cells differentiation: from organoids to disease modelling applications
Abstract:The generation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) derived organoids is one of the biggest scientific advances in regenerative medicine. Recently, we have demonstrated that by lengthening the time that hPSCs are exposed to a three-dimensional microenvironment in the presence of defined renal inductive signals we are able to generate kidney organoids that transcriptomically match second-trimester human fetal kidneys. Furthermore, we have developed a transplantation method that exploits the intrinsic properties of the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) to recreate a soft in vivo microenvironment for organoid growth and differentiation, including vascularization in vivo. Next, through bioengineering we have mimicked the stiffness of the chick CAM by fabricating compliant hydrogels. This approach resulted in the acceleration of kidney organoid formation proving that mechanical cues are determinant for the generation of hPSC-renal progenitor cells and kidney organoids. We will further discuss how these findings are pushing our research towards the application of different bioengineering strategies (i.e., including 3D bioprinting) for the generation of kidney organoids from hPSCs. Finally, we will also present recent findings when exploiting kidney organoid platform with CRISPR/Cas9 technology for applications in disease modeling and the study of morphogenesis.
