Sandra Petrus-Reurer

sp2016@cam.ac.uk

Position

Research Associate

Affiliation

Surgery and Darwin College

Keywords

Regenerative Medicine, Cellular Therapy, Stem Cells, Immune-Rejection, Immune-Modulation

I am a stem cell scientist particularly interested in understanding mechanisms of allogeneic graft rejection and how to modulate them for the success of cellular therapies for regenerative medicine.

I am Postdoctoral Research Associate in Kourosh Saeb-Parsy lab at Cambridge University (Addenbrooke’s Hospital). I completed a BSc in Biotechnology in University of Vic (Spain), a MSc in Cancer, Stem Cells and Developmental Biology in Utrecht University (the Netherlands), and a PhD on stem cell-derived therapies for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in Karolinska Institute (Sweden).

During my PhD, I made use of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) to derive retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE), which is one of the major cell types that first degenerates in advanced AMD, resulting in irreversible blindness and without current treatment. We developed a defined, safe and scalable differentiation protocol, with cells that proved to integrate in a preclinical animal model (rabbit eye). The research resulted in a strong platform to develop stem cell-based therapies for retinal disease and the hESC-RPE technology was licenced to the pharmaceutical company NovoNordisk with a planned clinical trial in the coming year.

The main challenge for these type of therapies remains in keeping the recipient’s immune system under to control to avoid rejection of the cellular therapy, and therefore secure the survival and function of the donor cells. Therefore, my current research in Cambridge University aims to understand the immune mechanisms behind such reactions both in vitro and in vivo in humanized mice models specifically in the context of liver and bile duct disease; and to be able to modulate them with genetic engineering and/or with functionalized biomaterials.

I hope that these studies will provide important knowledge to develop effective cellular therapies which will help millions of patients suffering from degenerative diseases in the near future.

Add your profile to the site

If you are an early career cis and trans woman researcher from the University of Cambridge or affiliated institutes, you can add your profile to the site. Fill in this form and we will be in touch.

For anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out by emailing us stepwide.cam@gmail.com.

This website

This website showcases the profiles of early career cis and trans women researchers from the University of Cambridge, UK, and affiliated institutions. It originated as part of StepWide, a leadership programme that aims to support the next generation of female researchers.

We hope that by making the expertise and stories of early career women researchers more visible (and searchable!), will highlight how much they contribute to the research that is done in the University and affiliated institutions.

Who is it for

This website is designed for a wide audience, be it other researchers looking for particular expertise for a collaboration; the media looking for experts; those that are simply curious about what type of research is done in Cambridge, or those trying to get a clearer idea of what a ‘typical’ woman researcher in this years old institution does (there is no ‘typical’!).

The StepWide programme

StepWide was designed by 3 postdocs at Cambridge (see below for more on Marta, Laura and Cemre). It aims to support female postdoctoral researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, from any discipline, who feel that taking a step into leadership is not for them. The programme is designed to suit both early and more senior postdocs, providing them with the skills to challenge the current ideas of what a leader is, learn how to raise their public profiles, as well as a close and supportive network of peer-to-peer female postdocs.

StepWide ran for the first time in 2019/2021, and we are currently running a new series of workshops in 2022/2023. We will post updates here when applications open for its next run.

Laura, Marta and Cemre (left to right on the photo) met at The Postdocs of Cambridge (PdOC) Society, at the University of Cambridge, UK. When the Researcher Development (RD) Pitch Competition was announced in late 2018, they felt this provided the ideal opportunity to work together to develop a leadership programme for women postdocs. They saw a gap in the current leadership RD provision, with a lack of opportunities that challenge current leadership views. Their proposal was successful and obtained funding for a one year pilot, giving rise to the StepWide programme.

Laura Fachal is a Senior Staff Scientist at Wellcome Sanger Institute. She earned her BS in Veterinary, MSc in Biotechnology and PhD from University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She completed her postdoc at the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, University of Cambridge. She is also a Research Associate at Lucy Cavendish College.

Marta Costa is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Zoology. She did her undergrad in Biology in Lisbon, Portugal, followed by an MSc in Neuroscience at UCL in London. She then moved to Cambridge for her PhD, followed by a postdoc. She is also a Research Associate at Lucy Cavendish College.

Cemre Ustunkaya was a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. She earned her BSc in Biological Science, followed by an MSc in Archaeometry at Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She later moved to Australia for her PhD in Archaeology at The University of Queensland. She is also a postdoc affiliate at Newnham College.

Thanks and funding

StepWide was funded by the Researcher Development Pitch Competition which included support from the Researcher Development Programme, The Postdocs of Cambridge (PdOC) Society, the Postdoc Academy, the Postdoc Chairs’ Network and the Careers Service at the University of Cambridge. We are very thankful for their support. We would also like to thank Alba Gómez for her expert support with the first version of the website, and to Arian Jamasb for redesigning and implementing the newest version of this website. Finally, we thank Natacha Wilson and Rebecca Nestor for the advice and support they provided for the development of the workshops.