ESR 3 José Manuel Horcas Nieto

j.m.horcas.nieto@umcg.nl

Laboratory of Pediatrics, Systems Medicine of Metabolism and Signaling. University Medical Center Groningen. The Netherlands

                                                                                    Supervisor: Barbara M. Bakker

 I hold a bachelors degree in Biochemistry by the University of Córdoba (Spain). I have a Master’s degree in Drug Design from Newcastle University (England). During my MSc I focused on organic synthesis as well as toxicology. The purpose of my master’s dissertation was to synthesize sulfonamides to be used as antibacterial agents.

After my master’s degree I worked at STEMCELL Technologies for almost two years as a Research Technologist. At STEMCELL Technologies I worked mostly in cell culture, developing new protocols and medium conditions for intestinal organoids.

Project Title:  TRANSLATIONAL MODELS FOR PEROXISOMAL DYSFUNCTION IN GENETIC DISEASE AND MALNUTRITION.

I am highly interested in the potential of organoids as a system to study not only organogenesis but also to model for different diseases in vitro. I believe these structures hold an incredible potential to study how cells behave in a more physiologically relevant environment than using traditional 2D cultures. I would like to use hepatic organoids in order to study Severe Acute Malnutrition and its effect in peroxisomal activity. While there are limitations to this system I think it is possible to optimize it as well as combine it with different technologies such as organ slices or even organ-on-chip. After establishment, these systems could also be a great tool for drug screening.

In my spare time I like to swim and run as well as practice yoga. I started swimming when I was 12 when I joined my local team and started competing at regional and national level. I enjoy the outdoors and love to go hiking.

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