It’s an exciting start to 2023 with some great news to share about our team!
An alumni has returned
Thapelo, one of our alumni, has returned to the Haapaniemi group to work on his master’s thesis! It’s really great to have him back in the team.
He will be working on his project related to the EpegRNA screening platform for primary immunodeficiency mutations. While working at our lab, Thapelo is doing MSc studies in Biotechnology, Biotechnology at NTNU (Norway).
The team has grown even further
We have a new PhD student in the group! Carolina Wieczorek Ervik will be focusing on clinical translation of optimised CRISPR editing protocols for primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDDs).
She will optimise and evaluate gene therapeutic treatments for PIDDs using CRISPR/Cas9 technology and CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) derived from umbilical cord blood (UCB), bone marrow (BM) and mobilised peripheral blood (mPB) and testing it on severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice. She will also establish and implement a GMP-compliant pipeline for scaled up editing protocols facilitating clinical translation of PIDD gene therapies.
Carolina has previously worked as a Research Assistant at the institute of Neuroscience and Physiology at Gothenburg University. More recently, she was a GMP cell production associate at Takara Bio Europe in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she worked with GMP hESC derivation and participated in RUO production of stem cell-related products as well as differentiation of hiPSCs into various cell types, including cardiomyocytes and beta cells.
Carolina has Bachelor- and Master of Medical Science degrees in Medical Biology from Linköping University, Sweden. She has held internship and scholarship positions at Gothenburg University at the institute of Neuroscience and Physiology.
In her free time Carolina enjoys gaming, mostly FPS, RPG and strategy games, and likes hanging out with her Doberman, Scooby, and her three cats.
You can see the profiles of the current team and alumni on our Team page.