The master student emphasises that she’s somewhat
off the beaten track, considering that within the six tracks MPDI
offers, her research does not exactly fit any of them. ‘I
chose somewhat of my own path within the master programme. While
completing the bachelor Life science & technology I got
intrigued by regenerative medicine, which deals with the
self-healing of organs and cells. Ultimately, this led me to want
to research the role that cells and the extracellular
matrix play in the lung disease Idiopathic pulmonary
fibrosis, or IPF.'
Cells and health
Lisette explains: ‘This disease of the
respiratory system causes lung tissue to indurate, eventually
filling up the lungs until breathing is impossible. Modern science
doesn’t know what exactly causes IPF, only that the matrices
surrounding the cells cause them to overproduce proteins, which
form scar tissue. Ideally, we would discover a protein to influence
the disease so that the cells stay healthy and
supple.’
Pauline van Wachem-award
Her supervisor during the research projects is
Principal Investigator Janette Burgess, who is specialised in lung
disease and regenerative medicine. They already met during
Lisette’s bachelor years, and met again in the first period
of the master programme. She was the one that urged Lisette to send
in an abstract of her research for the annual congress of the Dutch
Matrix Biology Society. Not only was Lisette invited to speak to
researchers and PhD-students from all over the world, she was also
awarded best junior speaker.
California
‘I will continue the research, but expanded to
fibroses in general,’ Lisette states. Her visa for the United
States just came through. In November she starts working with
Elliot Botvinick, professor in Biomedical Engineering at the
university of California Irvine. ‘He has high tech
microscopes that can measure the forces and interactions between
cells and proteins.’
Choose your track
Does she have any advice for future MPDI students?
‘In the first semester the Principal Investigators introduce
the tracks and their specific research interests within these
tracks. Oncology, Medical neurosciences and neurological diseases,
Infection and immunity, Medical nutrition and metabolic diseases,
Medical system biology and bioinformatics and Drug innovation.
Choose the track that sparks your interest and aspirations, or find
a way to follow your interests outside of the beaten paths. Being
“trackless” worked out great for me.’