Available Thesis Projects
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
Project 4
Project 5
Development and characterisation of bioinspired instructive bioinks to guide the differentiation of amniotic fluid stem cells toward epidermic/muscolar/neural phenotypes
- Design hydrogels to be used as 3D matrices for cell culture
Understanding how to mimic tissue-specific, biologically relevant chemical and mechanical cues
- Dynamic-mechanical characterisation of soft materials
Use of rheology to characterise and tune the viscoelastic properties of the soft materials
- Tuning material properties for bioprinting applications
Use of a priori and direct techniques to tune the printability of hydrogels
- Characterisation of cell-material interaction
Use of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess cell viability, proliferation and differentiation
Proteomic characterisation of fetal tissues
- Learn techniques in bioinformatics processing of proteomics data
- Understand mass spectrometry techniques for proteomics
- Build pipelines using different R packages
Use of Bioconductor packages and custom scripts to automate processing
- Analysis and integration of data from published dataset
- Generation of a proteomic atlas of fetal tissues
Development of a 3D in vitro model to test drug-induced toxicity
- Design and formulate a functional bioink for fetal in vitro models
Define its composition, ensure reproducible synthesis, and assess chemical stability and quality across batches
- Optimize the viscoelastic properties of the bioink
Establish quantitative correlations between rheological parameters (G′, G″, viscosity) and effective diffusion coefficients
- Develop and validate a cell encapsulation platform compatible with high-throughput screening
Demonstrate efficient encapsulation, preservation of cell viability and functionality, and scalability to multiwell formats
- Conduct a pilot drug toxicity screening using benchmark compounds
Generate dose–response curves, determine IC50 values, and calculate assay quality metrics (e.g., Z′ factor, signal-to-background ratio)
Assigned
Mesangioblasts in 3D scaffolds: promoting vascular
- Culture of Endothelial Cells and Mesangioblasts
Basic culture, maintenance and co-culture techniques
- Angiogenesis Assay
Evaluation of endothelial network formation and the role of mesangioblasts in network stability
- Notch pathway modulation
Role of γ-secretase inhibitor in Notch activation and mesangioblast differentiation
- 3D Bioprinting
Fabrication of a 3D model to test angiogenesis in vitro and smooth muscle tissue formation
Assigned
Isolation of specific cell types from Amniotic Fluid (AF) in rare congenital diseases
In collaboration with Gerli-De Coppi Lab (Institute of Child Health, UCL, London)
- Learn techniques in bioinformatics processing single-cell RNA sequencing
For transcriptomic analysis
- Build pipelines using different R packages
Seurat, Bioconductor
- Specific characterization of cell types within AF
- Identification and annotation of distinct cell populations within AF
With different methods (markers analysis, automatic annotation) and in-vitro validation via FACS
- Cell Culture
To generate 2D/3D models
- Tissue culture work
To generate prenatal models
