Caoimhe Kerins
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2020 Programme Start
I completed my BSc Biochemistry at University College Cork, Ireland, and MSc in Biomedicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
During my Master’s degree, I moved to London to complete my thesis by Erasmus in the lab of Dr Selina Wray at University College London. I then stayed in London as a research technician at King’s College London (lab of Dr Katie Long).
My interests are centred on in vitro modelling of diseases and the role of the extracellular matrix in disease.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
During my first year of the Wellcome Trust ‘Advanced Therapies and Regenerative Medicine’ Four-Year PhD Programme I rotated in 3 different labs:
The Chiappini lab: Investigating how nanoneedles can be used to modulate immune responses in mesenchymal stem cells
The Gentleman lab: Developing in vitro polyethylene glycol hydrogel models of aortic aneurysm
The Lieberam lab: Generating optogenetically controllable iPSC derived myoblasts (skeletal muscle precursor cells)
I learned a wide variety of skills during this first year including hydrogel culture, iPSC culture, electroporation, flow cytometry, handling of nanoneedles and cell culture on nanoneedles, use of various microscopes and deepened my knowledge of coding and bioinformatic analyses.
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4- Doctoral Studies
For my thesis project I will be supervised by Dr Eileen Gentleman and Dr Ivo Lieberam. This project aims to understand the role of a type of neural extracellular matrix, the perineuronal nets in the selective resistance of certain neuronal populations to cell death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
This project will involve a wide range of skills such as iPSC culture, mass spectrometry, atomic force microscopy and development of neuronal hydrogel cultures. I hope that this project will contribute to our knowledge of ALS pathology and clarify an unexplored area of ALS.
