Detail

Keywords

Peripheral Nerve Injuries; Phagocytosis; Spinal Cord Injuries; Tissue Engineering

Research group(s)

• ARGE Radtke
  Research Area: cell based therapies and spider silk conduits for peripheral nerve regeneration
  Members:
  Aida Naghilou
  Maximilian Haertinger
  Paul Supper
  Sarah Isabella Stadlmayr
  Flavia Millesi
  Tamara Weiss

Research interests

I am interested in how biomaterials such as hydrogels and spider silk fibers affect the behavior of primary neural cells. This work in combination with detailed material characterization will identify the components and properties crucial for nerve regeneration. This allows efficient application of biomaterials and facilitates the production of synthetic alternative. I am further investigating the phagocytic capabilities of peripheral and central nervous system glia towards myelin and looking at myelin composition differences as a possible underlying reason for this. Besides Schwann cells, I am using primary olfactory ensheathing cells, specialized glia cells at the border of the central and peripheral nervous system, microglia and astrocytes cultures.

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

• Primary Cell Culture (Rodent, Porcine and Human): Schwann cells, fibroblasts, olfactory ensheathing cells, astrocytes, microglia, DRG neurons
• Transcriptomics and Proteomics
• Scanning Electron Microcopy
• Confocal laser scanning microscopy
• Live Cell Imaging
• Flow Cytometry
• Myelin Isolation and Characterization: Ultracentrifugation, Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis, Lipidomics
• Organotypic Spinal Cord Slice Culture

Grants

• Olfactory ensheathing cells for spinal cord injury: Discovering distinct differences in two sub-types of these glia cells (2023)
  Source of Funding: Medical Scientific Fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna, 23166
  Coordinator of the collaborative project
• Spider silk fibres in combination with hydrogels as an innovative new approach to cell transplantation therapy for spinal cord injury (2021)
  Source of Funding: Medical Scientific Fund of the Mayor of the City of Vienna, 21196
  Coordinator of the collaborative project
• The optimal conduit for nerve regeneration (2021)
  Source of Funding: FWF (Austrian Science Fund), Einzelprojekt
  Coordinator of the collaborative project

Selected publications

1. Millesi, F. et al. (2023) ‘Systematic Comparison of Commercial Hydrogels Revealed That a Synergy of Laminin and Strain-Stiffening Promotes Directed Migration of Neural Cells’, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(10), pp. 12678–12695. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c20040.
2. Semmler, L. et al. (2023) ‘Silk‐in‐Silk Nerve Guidance Conduits Enhance Regeneration in a Rat Sciatic Nerve Injury Model’, Advanced Healthcare Materials, 12(11). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202203237.
3. Ciotu, C.I. et al. (2022) ‘Schwann cell stimulation induces functional and structural changes in peripheral nerves’, Glia, 71(4), pp. 945–956. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/glia.24316.
4. Millesi, F. et al. (2020) ‘Defining the regenerative effects of native spider silk fibers on primary Schwann cells, sensory neurons, and nerve‐associated fibroblasts’, The FASEB Journal, 35(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202001447r.