Alexandra Kranck
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2024 Programme Start
After finishing high school in Kenya, I obtained my integrated Master's degree in Biochemistry from the University of Warwick in England. During my time there, I worked on two projects: one focused on Alanyl-tRNA synthetase as a target for antimicrobial drug discovery in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and my Master's project on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, where I characterised ligand binding sites on TB metal transporters for potential TB treatments.
After university, I worked at the Almeida lab in the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany as a research assistant. This was a cancer immunology lab, where I worked on the optimisation of melanoma and CD8+ T cell co-cultures to aid in CAR-T cell therapy research.
After that I returned to England and worked as a Research technician at Rocio Sancho's lab, optimising a protocol for differentiating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into pancreatic islets for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research.
After a year, I decided I wanted to continue this work in a PhD and had a unique opportunity arose to join the Advanced Therapies in Regenerative Medicine PhD Programme by proceeding directly to doctoral studies.
PhD Programme- Years 1 to 3- Doctoral Studies
My thesis work will focus on T1D, with Dr Rocio Sancho as my supervisor. T1D is characterised by the body's inability to regulate blood glucose. Pancreatic β-cells regulate glucose through insulin release, and in T1D, these are destroyed by the immune system.
Due to the scarcity of donor islets and the difficulty of pancreas transplantation, scientists are growing stem cell-derived islets in vitro for transplantation. However, even if the stem cells are from the patient themselves, these transplanted islets still experience immune attack and inflammation. In this project, I aim to create iPSC-derived islets that are hidden from the immune system by mutating key immune factors on the surface of the islets. I will then test the efficiency of this system in vitro and in vivo. Through this work, we hope to make islet transplantation more efficient.
