Senior Researcher, Department of Surgery, Experimental Hepatobiliary Surgery Group, University of Leipzig Medical Center, Germany

Peggy Stock studied Biology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany and graduated in 2005 in the field of molecular hepatology.

The main subjects of her scientific work include the investigation of age dependent repopulation of rat liver after partial hepatectomy and cell transplantation and investigations of various rodent liver disease models after transplantation of bone marrow or adipose tissue derived mesenchymal stromal cell differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells. This work includes the monitoring of non-invasive imaging of transplanted cells within the host liver. During her PhD, she focussed also on the cryopreservation of hepatocytes from various mammals and determined the developmental stage of hepatocyte like human mesenchymal stem cells. The development of three dimensional culture conditions for hepatocytes and human mesenchymal stromal cells for the application in regenerative medicine are topics of her current research projects.

Scientific Collaborator, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva

Fanny Lebreton initially studied Neurosciences and Neuropsychopharmacology in the University of Bordeaux, working on the in vivo electrophysiological, motor and behavioural changes happening during the onset and development of the Huntington’s disease in mouse models. She then applied the knowledge acquired in neuroscience to the field of islet biology during her Ph.D. in the team of Pr. Jochen Lang to study electrical signals generated by pancreatic islets. Her work led to the discovery and characterization of a novel signal, the slow potentials, generated by islets in response to glucose stimulation.

Following her Ph.D., Fanny pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Geneva in the team of Pr. Thierry Berney under the supervision of Ekaterine Berishvili, where she focused on generating insulin-secreting organoids. By combining islet cells with human amniotic epithelial cells, her research aimed to enhance islet cell function, survival, engraftment, and vascularization for beta cell replacement therapy in type 1 diabetes. Since 2018, Fanny has served as a senior researcher at the University of Geneva in the team of Dr. Ekaterine Berishvili, where she takes part in the development of a bioartificial pancreas, combining insulin-secreting cells, immunomodulatory cells, endothelial cells and biological scaffolds to create innovative solutions for diabetes therapy. In parallel, she’s part of the Islet Isolation and Transplantation Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals, one of the world leading islet isolation center for beta cell replacement therapy.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Gene Lay Institute for Immunology and Inflammation;
Department of Immunology, Blavatnik Institute, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston

Dr. Sivanathan studies the cellular dynamics controlling the mucosal barrier sites in health and inflammatory diseases, focusing on stromal immunology. She did her PhD and early Postdoctoral studies at the Transplant Immunology lab at the University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital, Australia. During her PhD, she studied the immunomodulatory properties of adult human mesenchymal stem cells and in her early Postdoctoral research, she worked on differentiating human stem cells into functionalized cell types for tissue repair, regeneration, transplantation, and diabetes. Dr. Sivanathan currently a Young Investigator Committee Member of the TTS CTRMS.

Staff Scientist I, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

I am an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and PI of the Stem Cell and Organoid Research Lab at BIDMC. I am an expert in developmental and cell biology, genetics, and regenerative medicine, with focus in pluripotent cell differentiation and liver organoid development. I have also been studying chromatin modifiers and remodelers as regulators of cellular differentiation. I am an inventor of the technique for rapid high-throughput formation of organoids from dissociated hiPSCs with micro fabricated cell-repellent micro-well arrays.