Giorgia Mazzini

Giorgia graduated with a bachelor’s degree (BSc) in 2020 from the University of Urbino ‘Carlo Bo’ in Medical Biotechnology with a thesis regarding histone proteins and epigenetics. During her academic studies Giorgia spent a period abroad at 2A Pharma AB Research Group (https://2apharma.com/pipeline/2ap01-cervical-skin-oropharyngeal-and-other-hpv-related-cancersat) University of Aalborg (Denmark), working on projects regarding the development of HIV and HPV vaccines using AALPs technology. She completed her master’s studies (MSc) in 2022 at the University of Verona in Medical and Molecular Biotechnology working on a thesis project on CNS microglial cells, in collaboration with the AG3 research group (https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/pers_publ/publ/EinrichtungDetail.jsp?orgId=231766198in) the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department at University of Bielefeld (Germany).

Giorgia’s PhD project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Ingrid Meulenbelt and Dr. Yolande Ramos of the OA research group is based on the LS-NeoCarE (Large-Scale Neo-Cartilage Engineering) design, a project aiming at regenerative treatment technologies for osteoarthritis funded through the NWO grant. The project is in close collaboration between LUMC (Biomedical Data Science and Rheumatology departments), Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Hogeschool Leiden, TU/e in Eindhoven, and Utrecht University. Her research is focused on the large-scale, high-quality ‘off the shelf’ creation of engineered large-scale cartilage implants starting from stable iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) lines produced in the hiPSC facility at LUMC. Once this is achieved, the goal will be to make these neo-cartilage implants immunologically inert for patients suffering from OA: advanced techniques such as CRISPR-CAS9 and organ-on-chip technology will be used to do this.