FSBI RCMG postgraduate student was granted a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation

The research was focused on a technology of producing bronchial and pulmonary organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells isolated from cystic fibrosis patients with a corrected F508del mutation in CFTR gene.

Anna Demchenko, a postgraduate student at the Genome Editing Laboratory of N.P. Bochkov Research Centre for Medical Genetics, was granted a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation to research the technology of producing bronchial and pulmonary organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells of cystic fibrosis patients with CFTR gene corrected F508del mutation.

Anna entered the postgraduate course in Biological Sciences majoring in Genetics. Her dissertation work is devoted to the method of obtaining bronchial and pulmonary organoids, functional analysis of the CFTR channel conductance, and efficient editing the CFTR gene F508del mutation.

Anna has already achieved significant success in obtaining bronchial and pulmonary organoids with a patent for a new protocol currently being prepared.

“In the next 10 years, we would like to be able to have in vivo studies - to transplant organoids obtained in our laboratory and evaluate their therapeutic effect. Our foreign colleagues experience gives us confidence in our success - they also work with bronchial and pulmonary organoids, and on laboratory animals already. Bronchial and pulmonary organoids have great prospects, for example, in transplantation.

It is possible to inoculate transplantable lungs with organoids as in vivo research shows. This will help solve the problem of obtaining physiologically functional tissue and bring us closer to a personalized approach in regenerative medicine,” Anna said.

The Presidential Scholarships are an effective tool for supporting young scientists; they allow them to conduct the most promising research in such priority areas of science as Genetics.