IMMOBONE - Immunomodulation for bone tissue engineering

Tissue engineering (TE) refers to the branch of regenerative medicine that develops artificial grafts to replace or repair human tissues. Different TE strategies might either recapitulate tissue function outside the body or rely on endogenous regeneration. In both cases, a TE graft must integrate with the host after implantation. The translation of TE grafts to the clinical practice is still limited and requires novel insights into their therapeutic mechanisms of action.

The IMMOBONE project aims to generate novel evidence at the single-cell level of the host response to TE grafts and boost the graft-driven regeneration capacity. The project will build on a tibial defect model in mice, where the immune and the regenerative responses to the implantation of a hydrogel and an organoid-based graft will be characterized up to the single-cell level. The applicant will rationally define the most influential T cell subset for a regenerative response and functionalize the hydrogel-based graft to activate this specific cell type.

IMMOBONE is conceived to broaden the applicant's expertise in osteoimmunology, material sciences and bioinformatics, while enhancing his experimental and computational skill set. The applicant's background makes him uniquely suited to bridge the knowledge of the two supervisors involved. If successful, IMMOBONE will make the applicant an independent scientist and will contribute to the use of immunoengineering as an integral part of regenerative medicine.