We are happy to welcome Ellen to the LifeTec Group team as our newest intern! Ellen is a 23-year-old Master student in Biomedical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). She is originally from Harmelen (Woerden), but has lived in Eindhoven for the past 4.5 years.
Ellen's research interests lie in the field of Tissue Engineering, and she is particularly interested in studying the effects of mechanical loading on cartilage degeneration. The goal of her project is to develop a reproducible degeneration model that can be used to study the damage progression of osteochondral plugs over time. The focus will be on the effect of conditioned medium from mechanically damaged osteochondral plugs on healthy osteochondral plugs. The idea is that the conditioning medium includes inflammatory cytokines and factors that cause the healthy porcine osteochondral plugs to develop a degenerative response.
Finally, this model will also be used to investigate whether cartilage damage can be regenerated when using common therapeutic drugs to treat osteoarthritis (OA), which is a degenerative joint disease.
Ellen is excited to join the LifeTec Group team and to learn more about the company's work in the field of cartilage repair. She also looks forward to gaining experience working in a research and development setting. We are confident that Ellen will be a valuable asset to the LifeTec Group team, and we look forward to supporting her as she completes her Master thesis.
