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Biography
I started my scientific career in animal genomics and obtained my Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland, followed by a postdoc at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Genetics, University of Liège. Belgium. My strong interest in biomedical research and regenerative medicine brought me to the fields of cardiovascular ischemia/reperfusion injury and tissue engineering of autologous heart valves before I focused on the in utero transplantation of umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells and fetal liver-derived mesenchymal stromal cells in sheep and rodent models. I'm now the head of the Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine at the University Women’s Hospital and the Department for BioMedical Research, University of Bern, Switzerland. I'm a member and scientific advisory board member of several stem cell societies and also serve as a Board Member and President-Elect (2022-2026) of the International Placenta Stem Cell Society (IPLASS). In the European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST) Action CA17116: “International Network for Translating Research on Perinatal Derivatives into Therapeutic Approaches (SPRINT)”, I was appointed as the Working Group Leader for Preclinical Studies and Models.
My current interest now lies in developing stem cell-derived therapies for treating neonatal brain injuries related to preterm birth. Our research group is now focusing on the paracrine mechanisms of umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells, namely, on the potential of extracellular vesicles produced by them.