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2024 Summer Studentship winners

Meet our 2024 Summer Studentship winners

We’ve once again received a diverse range of interesting applications for our popular Summer Studentship Scheme this year, and we have three fantastic winners being awarded a total of £7,900 to complete their short summer projects!

The Summer Studentship scheme allows young scientists to improve their sci-comms skills, gain practical research experience, and directly contribute to the replacement of animals in medical experiments.

Grace has been awarded £2,750 for her project Development of A Novel Non-Animal Research Method for Glioblastoma Research, supervised by Dr Natividad Gomez-Roman

Glioblastoma is the most common type of primary malignant brain tumour in adults. Although chemotherapy and radiation can slow tumour growth and reduce the symptoms associated with it, fewer than 1% of all patients live for more than ten years.

Methods of research into glioblastomas primarily involve animals and animal-derived products. Despite decades of research into finding improved approaches to treat glioblastoma, most clinical trials have failed to improve patient outcomes.

Grace is one of two of our Summer students working on brain tumours this year! Her project aims to help improve the clinical translation of glioblastoma models. She will be using 3D cell culture models using tumour tissue from patients, to better predict how they might respond to treatments and improve their survival. Culturing cells from patients’ tumours requires a wide range of biological and chemical factors to maintain the tumour cells in the lab. In glioblastoma, this includes secreted factors, specialised nutrients, and the tumour-secreted extracellular matrix, Matrigel, which needs mice to produce. The variable nature of the extracted product from different batches carries complex scientific and ethical issues. While these limitations are well known to researchers, they’re currently unable to source viable alternatives that provide the same function and utility.

In collaboration with a company that designs and produces novel, non-naturally occurring chimeric proteins, Grace is testing an alternative form of extracellular matrix using glioblastoma 3D models chimeric proteins to see if they have the potential to replace the use of Matrigel.

Grace’s project could also provide a non-animal alternative, sustainable, and cost-effective approach for other patient-derived cellular models, not just glioblastoma.

Grace says “I’m passionate about the pursuit of ethical science which I believe can only be fully achieved with the elimination of animal models in research. This opportunity represents a way to tangibly contribute to a mission I’m passionate about, as well as a gateway to a future in animal-free research.”

Meilinda has won £1,000 for her project Advancing in vitro bone model using human iPSCs and nanovibration, supervised by Dr Carmen Huesa

Musculoskeletal disorders are one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and most research into them relies on animals. Human-relevant models are being developed but suitable cells like bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells can be difficult to obtain, due to the invasive nature of the collection and availability of donors. Patient-derived human cells also have a limited life span, and genetic modification is challenging.

A potential alternative source is induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These genetically engineered stem cells derived from adult human cells, such as the skin, offer an alternative unlimited supply cells for use in human in vitro models of bone.

Bones are incredibly reactive to changes in load bearing, even daily walking induces stronger and greater bone formation, while a lack of mechanical stimuli leads to bone loss. Any model system of human bones therefore needs mechanical stimulation.

Meilinda will use a system that creates mechanical stimulation on a tiny scale. These “nanovibrations” are known to promote the growth of bone-forming cells. She’ll then compare lab-grown cells with natural bone cells using genetic and molecular techniques. The ultimate goal is to create a 3D model that combines both bone and cartilage cells, mimicking the structure of real bones. This model could then be used to mimic how the different types of cells interact within human bones as they develop, function, repair and heal.

Meilinda says “I believe that developing a working model using human cells will not only reduce the use of animals but also create more reliable data as there are often translation gaps between animal and human science.”

Sophie has won £4,150 for her project towards validation of clinical relevance of 3D in vitro models in brain tumour research, supervised by Dr Anke Brüning-Richardson

Brain tumours such as gliomas make up 25% of childhood cancer cases in the UK and are among the most common types of cancer in children. Glioblastomas are high grade tumours and are the most prevalent glioma in both children and adults. Brain tumour research tends to centre on the use of animal ‘models’, but laboratory based in vitro systems that use cancer cell lines, have never had a thorough comparison to demonstrate the usefulness of each ‘model’.

Sophie is one of two of our Summer students working on glioblastoma this year. She will create mini brain tumours, or spheroids, in the lab that have an engineered reduced or enhanced ability to navigate through the brain environment. These ‘tumours’ will be allowed to invade an artificial brain environment created in the lab, and the invasive behaviour of these tumours, will be studied by high resolution microscopy. The results will be compared to data from brain scans from archival experimental mouse studies with the same cells used for the spheroids. This has the potential to identify benefits and drawbacks of both ‘models’, and will be the basis of an in-depth follow-on study with other archival data and MRI scans from brain tumour patients.

Sophie hopes to provide further evidence for the effectiveness of these in vitro models, resulting ultimately in the reduction of animal numbers used in preclinical glioma research. Demonstrating the effectiveness of new in vitro models with data from historic animal studies can stimulate a wider shift amongst researchers towards non-animal-based technologies, improving both human and animal lives.

Sophie says “I am extremely passionate about the welfare of animals, and I use day-to-day products from companies that are animal cruelty-free. This made me ask why with the offer from many brands in industries to use products developed by alternatives to animals can’t we do the same in research?”