"disease-in-a-dish". With these and other approaches they are trying to understand how blood vessels become diseased and trying to find new treatments for these diseases. They are also developing ways to transplant our stem cell generated cells to reverse the damage caused by a heart attack.
Research Focus
The Sinha lab's overall aim is to develop new treatments for cardiovascular diseases, using their expertise in cardiovascular development, regeneration and disease modelling. They have pioneered the generation of embryonic lineage-specific vascular smooth muscle cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells, using chemically defined conditions. They have utilised this system to model genetically triggered aortopathies, such as Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndromes. These "disease-in-a-dish" models are being used to understand the pathobiology of these conditions and to screen for new treatments.
Additionally, they are they are generating a detailed multiomic and spatial atlas of human heart development and modelling key developmental niches and events in vitro using hESC-based 3D system to define key regulatory mechanisms in humans.
Finally, they are testing the regenerative potential of hESC-derived epicardium and other cardiovascular cell types for heart repair after myocardial infarction, either through direct injection or in the form of an in vitro generated myocardial "patch".
To Apply:
We encourage prospective PhD students to reach out directly to Professor Sinha, sinha@stemcells.cam.ac.uk to discuss potential projects and supervision.
Applicants must secure the support of a Supervisor within a laboratory before submitting an application. Please contact the project Supervisor(s) to discuss potential supervision, proposed research project and funding options, which should then be used to write your formal application.
Applications will be submitted to the 'PhD in Stem Cell Biology' and full course details can be found at https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/blscpdscp
Funding Notes
This is not a core-funded PhD programme, and candidates are therefore required to secure their own funding.
Please visit Postgraduate Funding | Cambridge Stem Cell Institute for funding available via the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.
Funding options should be discussed on an individual basis with the proposed Supervisor before submitting an application.
Applicants are recommended to apply to the University funding scheme by ticking 'Yes - I wish to apply for funding ' in the funding section of the Applicant Portal, by the funding deadline. You will then automatically be considered for any University funding that you are eligible for.
To learn more about how to apply for University funding, please visit Postgraduate funding | Postgraduate Study
