SUPERVISOR: Cornelia KASPER

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Julia MOLDASCHL 

Over the last decades, the awareness about the positive effects of physiological cultivation systems on cells increased, resulting in a continuous shift from 2D to 3D cell culture systems. In detail, primary human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) cultured as three-dimensional aggregates (spheroids) have been shown to provide enhanced angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects as well as improved stemness and survival rates after transplantation.

The project focuses on the investigation of physiological cultivation approaches for hMSC with particular emphasis on bioreactor systems for dynamic cultivation approaches, hypoxic oxygen culture conditions as well as 3D culture approaches covering both scaffold-free 3D models arranging the cells in spheroids and scaffold-based cultures focusing on hydrogels. The application of all mentioned parameters pursues the goal of mimicking the cell’s natural environment resembling the in vivo situation better and therefore providing higher relevant data derived from in vitro models – especially in the context of safe and effective translation of cellbased therapies (CBT) into clinical applications.

An essential part is a participation in the Crazy 8 Initiative project “Tracking Ewing Sarcoma (EwS) Origin by Developmental and Trans-Species Genomics”. The particular contribution is the optimization of expansion and differentiation processes of primary human bone marrowderived mesenchymal cells into the adipogenic, chondrogenic, and osteogenic lineage conducted in physiological 3D cell culture systems under normoxia vs. hypoxia.