DC 10: Sara Owad
Sara Owad (Poland) is a recent graduate of the International Master in Innovative Medicine (IMIM). She received her Bachelors degree in Human Physiology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in 2018 before moving abroad. Her bachelor’s project focused on protein interactions in the kidney glomerulus using the Yeast-2-Hybridization method. Sara spent the first year of her masters in Uppsala, Sweden where she completed her first research project at the Rudbeck Laboratory.
During this project she focused on vasculature and protein expression in renal clear cell carcinoma (RCC). In the lab, she helped establish a protocol for multiplex imaging of RCC patient tumor cores while perfecting her western blot skills. Sara found her passion for organoid/organ-on-a-chip modelling while interning in a microfluidic lab in Groningen and decided she wanted to pursue a career involving physiologically relevant modelling.
Sara completed her thesis project at the Prinses Maxima Centre for pediatric oncology in Utrecht where she created a protocol for the electroporation and genetic engineering of neurospheres derived from fetal tissue and fetal brain-derived organoids. She is very excited to be joining the team at MIMETAS and returning to the field of nephrology.
Planned secondments: 3 months at KUL for patient-specific kidney on a chip. 3 months at Ukessen for evaluation of metabolic parameters.
KU Leuven
3 monthsLeuven, Belgium
University Clinic of Essen
3 monthsEssen, Germany
My research project
In my project, I will develop a modular, 3D human kidney model in the microfluidic platform OrganoPlate to mimic a kidney architecture and function. In this plate, two channels are separated by a hydrogel. One channel is populated with RPTECs or tubuloid-derived epithelium, the adjacent channels will be used for co-culture with kidney fibroblasts, endothelial and immune cells. This platform will be then used to model disease-kidney model-based readouts mimicking diseased kidney phenotypes suitable for high-throughput screening. We will then test and validate the effect of mediators and compounds on correcting the modelled kidney alterations present in mTORopathies.
PhD enrolment : 
DC 9: Kartik Jatwani