She seeks answers to stem cells’ dual nature
Why do pluripotent stem cells behave so differently in a living organism compared to a cell culture? That’s the question driving Carolina Guibentif at the University of Gothenburg – and now she has the chance to find out, thanks to an ERC Starting Grant worth €1.5 million over five years.
Receiving an ERC Starting Grant is among the most prestigious achievements for a researcher in Europe. This year, Carolina is one of the awardees. Her project has been recognized as both creative and innovative – and as a bold endeavor. Success is far from guaranteed, but if she does succeed, her results could change how scientists work with stem cells.
“I’ve encountered this problem many times in my research, and there’s still no good answer,” she says.
Difficult to control in culture
Pluripotent stem cells can develop into any cell type in the body. In living organisms, they follow stable and predictable paths, but in the lab their behavior is far less consistent. That makes experiments harder to reproduce and slows the development of new treatments.
Carolina’s project tackles the problem from two angles. One is computational: analyzing and comparing existing gene expression datasets of developing embryos published by labs around the world – different species, different developmental stages. The other is experimental: growing embryo-like structures in the lab, tracking their development step by step, and comparing the results to what happens in living systems.
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“By studying both sides at the same time, we hope to understand which factors steer cell behavior – and why the body seems to succeed so much better than we do in the lab,” she says.
Biology meets mathematics
Carolina earned her undergraduate degree in Portugal and completed her PhD at Lund University in Sweden. During her postdoctoral work at the University of Cambridge, she worked in an environment where biology met mathematics and computer science – much like the research group she has now established at the University of Gothenburg.
She describes her work as curiosity-driven, but with a clear focus on how the findings can be put to use.
“We don’t know exactly what we’re going to find. But if we can get stem cells to behave as reliably in the lab as they do in the body, it will greatly facilitate the production of cells for transplantation purposes in the clinic. For example, we could produce blood cells suitable for bone marrow transplants in treatments for blood diseases, or neural cells for replacing nerve cells in Parkinson’s patients. That could open entirely new possibilities for many people,” says Carolina.