ESR9: Ana Aragón

Development of Human Cell-Based Models for study of Blood Brain Barrier Molecular Permeability

EuroNeurotrophin Research
Ana will work on a project aimed at building a cell model of the human blood brain barrier (BBB) by using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). She will apply protocols for hiPSC differentiation into microvascular cells and assess the beneficial effect of hiPSC-derived microvascular cell co-culture with primary astrocytes on BBB integrity and filtration performance. The model shall then be used to evaluate the permeability properties of neurotrophic agonists and antagonists.


Host
B7: AvantiCell Science Ltd., United Kingdom

Supervisor
Dr. Marie-Ann Ewart, AvantiCell Science Ltd.

Scientific Background
Ana holds a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Cordoba, Spain. She enjoyed an Erasmus+ fellowship in the last year of her degree in Wrocław, Poland. In her erasmus experience, she was student in practices in the Cytobiochemistry Department of the Biotechnology Faculty, in the University of Wroclaw, where she researched about a family with a rare case of anemia disease. Ana pursued an Interuniversitary Master in Neuroscience by the University of Barcelona in association with the Universities of Pompeu i Fabra, Rovira i Virgili and Lleida. During the master, Ana works with human astrocytes and neurons co-cultures to reproduce  the characteristic neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative human brains in vitro. The research was carry out in the Apoptosis and Cell Signalling group of the Vall d’Hebron Research Centre, Barcelona, leads by Dr. Joan Comella. In November 2019 Ana joined the EuroNeurotrophin European Training Network at the AvantiCell Science Ltd company, Ayr, Scotland, and enrolled as PhD student at the University of Malaga, Spain.