Associate professor Sorina Dinescu, teaching staff and researcher at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Bucharest invites us, in a new episode of the UB Science Dose, to an incursion in the world of stem cells, tissue engineering and personalized regenerative medicine.
What is tissue engineering? What are stem cells and what can they be used for? What are biomaterials and what is their role in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine? What are the main diseases that stem cells treatment can work for? Researcher Sorina Dinescu will offer us answers to these questions and many others in the current episode of the UB Science Dose.
Episode no. 17 of the UB Science Dose series is available below:
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As the introduction of researcher Sorina Dinescu’s presentation shows, tissue engineering is a field that significantly contributes to the development of personalized regenerative medicine through the combined use of materials and cellular components such as stem cells, in order to regenerate and reconstruct tissue, both when it comes to tissue lesions, as well as when there are mechanical defects in the tissue.
Discovering the fact that stem cells have a higher differentiating potential towards multiple cell types than was initially thought represented an essential step in personalizing regenerative medicine. If, until just a few years ago, it was considered that a stem cell can differentiate only in the direction of embryo matrix it comes from, today it has been proven that stem cells can transdifferentiate towards other types of cells.
Along the multiple uses in some cancer cases, the use of stem cells in blocking the mechanisms triggered in the case of neurodegenerative maladies such as Parkinson and Alzheimer is currently intensely researched. At the same time, these cells have proven extremely useful in the engineering of the peripheral nervous tissue, meaning for rebuilding the damaged tissue in serious accidents: falls, paralyses, torn tissue, bones, spine.
In the last few years, researcher Sorina Dinescu has been a part of several research projects that study this theme and which have succeeded in transdifferentiating stem cells towards other types of cells.
Next, the guest of the current edition of the UB Science Dose talks about the essential role of biomaterial engineering in the efficient use of stem cells in personalized regenerative medicine.
Sorina Dinescu will share more about the most recent discoveries in the field of biomaterials, on the use of stem cells in various diseases, as well as on tissue engineering projects and personalized regenerative medicine in episode no. 17 of the UB Science Dose.
Sorina Dinescu is associated lecturer, PhD, and scientific researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and molecular biology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Bucharest, and affiliated researcher at the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB).
She has graduated Bachelor, Master’s and PhD courses at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Bucharest. She finished her PhD studies in 2015 with a thesis on Cellular and molecular mechanisms of differentiating isolated stem cells in adipose tissue.
Her research interests include: understanding the molecular mechanisms which form the basis of differentiating stem cells with the purpose of using them in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; evaluating the biocompatibility of some materials destined for the reconstruction of tissue (hard tissue, soft tissue and nervous tissue); investigating the intercellular communication mechanisms by means of exosomes; the analysis of non-coding ARN in regeneration processes and/or in tumoral processes; investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in the malignant tumor and the interaction with stem cells in tumoral micro-environment.
She received 4 national grants financed by UEFICSDI (as project director), all in the field of tissue regeneration and the biology of stem cells. She also took part in numerous other national and international research projects (25, respectively 6).
Sorina Dinescu is a member in several research institutes and author of numerous scientific papers in international high-impact scientific publications.
For her excellent results in the field of research, she received the UNESCO-L’Oreal distinction for Women in Science, Life Sciences Section (2016), The Prize of the Senate of the University of Bucharest (2022), as well as a distinction for remarkable results in research and innovation in 2022 for her contribution to consolidating the position of the University of Bucharest in international rankings.
The UB Science Dose proposes a concentrated and dynamic manner of sharing scientific information in a lively, expressive and inciting format, establishing a dialogue platform with the broad public interested in science.
Initiated in October 2021 within the Science Communication Program of the University of Bucharest, the UB Science Dose is addressed to the large audience and encourages the connection between the academic and non-academic settings, based on current subjects that are of interest for society.
The guests of this series, meant to represent, in a synthetic and captivating communication manner, the various areas of science, are mainly professors and researchers within the academic community of the University of Bucharest.
The materials presented in the UB Science Dose include short and dynamic presentations of subjects relevant for contemporary society: pollution, climate change, education, digitalization, significant contributions to research, and others. Next to the fundamental need to communicate scientifically proven information, the Dose proposes an important component of social responsibility, confirming the role and mission of the University of Bucharest in society and contributing to increasing awareness on acute contemporary problems and finding and promoting possible solutions for them.
