Elise Engquist
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2019 Programme Start
I completed my bachelor’s degree in biology at Bowdoin College in Maine, USA, and after graduating I worked as a Research Assistant in the Melton Lab at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Massachusetts, USA.
While working there, I studied part-time to receive a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Biotechnology Management from the Harvard Extension School.
PhD Programme – Year 1 – MRes and Project Rotations
During my first year, I explored many diverse areas of stem cell biology. For my first rotation I joined the lab of Prof. Peter Zammit, where I used muscle stem cells from patients with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) to investigate how oxidative stress and metabolic dysfunction contribute to the muscle-wasting observed in disease pathology.
My second rotation was with Prof. Paul Sharpe’s group, where I explored how loss of mechanosensing affects mesenchymal stem cells in the dental pulp of the adult mouse incisor. My third rotation, which I completed with Dr. Franziska Denk and Prof. Leonie Taams during the UK COVID-19 lockdown, was an interdisciplinary project examining the role of neuro-immune interactions in chronic pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
PhD Programme – Years 2 to 4 – Doctoral Studies
For my thesis project I have joined the lab of Professor Peter Zammit. The Zammit group studies skeletal muscle with a particular emphasis on facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), an autosomal dominant muscular dystrophy involving progressive skeletal muscle weakness and wasting. Muscle normally repairs efficiently due to resident stem cells, but loss of muscle mass in FSHD indicates a compromised repair mechanism.
Over the course of my PhD, I aim to characterize muscle stem cells in FSHD by examining protein and gene expression in muscle biopsies from FSHD patients. I also aim to explore the dynamics of how FSHD affects development and function of muscle stem cells, as well as subsequent myofiber formation and regeneration, using induced pluripotent stem cells from FSHD patients and in vivo models.
This work will inform whether deficits in muscle stem cell function contribute to the muscle wasting observed in FSHD pathology, and explore potential regenerative therapies.
