{"id":18158,"date":"2020-09-03T14:53:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T13:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/?p=18158"},"modified":"2020-09-04T07:24:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T06:24:02","slug":"ukens-ansatt-simona-chera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/2020\/09\/03\/ukens-ansatt-simona-chera\/","title":{"rendered":"[:no]Ukens ansatt – Simona Chera [:en]This week`s employee – Simona Chera [:]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[:no]\"\"<\/a>Kva arbeidar du som?
\nEg er ein f\u00f8rsteamanuensis ved Senteret for diabetesforsking ved K2. Forskinga mi er retta mot korleis eigenskapane til celled\u00f8d styrer strategitypen for regenerering som blir brukt av biologiske system. Ved \u00e5 kombinera klassiske og nyleg genererte musemodellar for celletap med genetisk cellesporing, tidsbestemt betinga genutrykking og omics-analysar (transkriptomikk, proteomikk, scRNAseq), studerer eg det dynamiske molekyl\u00e6re fingeravtrykket for pankreas \u00f8ycellene sitt forfall og regenerering med fokus p\u00e5 sj\u00f8lvfornying og global regulering av prosessane som vedlikeheld celleidentitet. Utanom framgangsm\u00e5ten som bruker in vivo modeller, har eg brukt pasientspesifikke induserte pluripotente stamceller (hiPSC) som sjukdomsmodell kombinert med storskala avbilding og omics for \u00e5 studera korleis \u00f8ycellene tileignar og vedlikeheld si celleskjebne. Me utviklar ogs\u00e5 eit 3D cellekultursystem for \u00e5 unders\u00f8kja p\u00e5verknaden til mekaniske krefter og adhesjon p\u00e5 kontroll av signalvegar for pankreas forl\u00f8parceller sitt differensieringspotensiale. V\u00e5rt m\u00e5l er \u00e5 auka kunnskapen knytt til pankreas \u00f8ycelle-biologi for \u00e5 skapa betre behandling for diabetes, eller f\u00f8rebyggande tiltak i framtida. Mitt personlege m\u00e5l er \u00e5 indusera, i alle fall i noko grad, endogen regenerering hj\u00e5 pankreas \u00f8ycellene, noko som er observert i dyr som er kjent for stort potentisale til \u00e5 regenerere (nesledyr, salamander, eller fisk). Karrieren mi byrja med \u00e5 arbeid med slike suksessfulle modellar for regenerering, og gjennom mitt PhD arbeid ved Universitetet i Gen\u00e8ve, viste me at apoptotiske celler danna ved skade var ei kjelde til signal for regenerering. Gjennom mitt postdoktor arbeid (Universitetet i Gen\u00e8ve), byrja eg \u00e5 arbeida med regenerering hj\u00e5 pankreas \u00f8ycelle og viste at pattedyr pankreas ogs\u00e5 har, i veldig liten grad, ein naturleg evne til regenerering. Ei betre forst\u00e5ing av korleis \u00f8ycellene blir forma under utvikling vil ogs\u00e5 styrka framtidige strategiar for regenerering.<\/p>\n

Kva likar du ved \u00e5 arbeida ved K2?
\nEg byrja \u00e5 arbeid her for fem \u00e5r sidan, noko som gav meg ein mogelegheit for \u00e5 bli kjent med metodar og behov i klinisk forsking. Eg er ein del av ein veldig mangfaldig og tverrfagleg forskingsgruppa, der me integrerer genomikk, molekyl- og cellebiologi, bioinformatikk og klinisk forsking. Me studerer alle diabetes, men med ulike vinklingar p\u00e5 sjukdommen fr\u00e5 molekyl\u00e6re mekanismar til kliniske aspektar med sjukdommen. Eg likar utfordringane med \u00e5 l\u00e6ra korleis ein kan effektivt kommunisera med forskarar med ulike bakgrunnar, og f\u00e5 erfara diabetesforsking fr\u00e5 s\u00e5 mange ulike vinklingar. Ved \u00e5 vera s\u00e5 n\u00e6r klinikkar ved K2 har endra synet mitt p\u00e5 eiga forsking, s\u00e6rleg n\u00e5r det kjem til motivasjon og innverknad.[:en]\"\"<\/a>What are you working on?<\/p>\n

I work as an associate professor at the Center for Diabetes Research, K2. My research is directed at how cell death features govern the type of regenerative strategy employed by a biological system. By coupling classical and newly generated murine models of cell loss with genetic cell tracing, timed conditional gene expression and omics assays (transcriptomics, proteomics, scRNAseq), I study the dynamic molecular fingerprint of pancreatic islet cells decay and regeneration, with focus on self-renewal and global regulators of cell identity maintenance processes. Besides the in vivo approach, I use patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) as disease models coupled with large-scale imaging and omics for studying islet cell fate acquisition and maintenance. We are also developing a 3D culture system to investigate the influence of mechanical forces and adhesion on signaling pathways controlling the pancreatic progenitors\u2019 differentiation potential. Our goal is to enlarge the knowledge base about pancreatic islet biology in order to create a better treatment for diabetes, or preventive measures in the future. My personal goal is to induce at least a certain level of endogenous regeneration of the pancreatic islets as seen in highly regenerative animals (like hydra, salamander or fish). My career started by working on such a successful regenerative system, and during my PhD work at University of Geneva, we described that apoptotic cells resulted upon injury were the source of regenerative signals. During my postdoctoral work (University of Geneva), I started working on pancreatic islet regeneration and showed that the mammalian pancreas also exhibits, at a very low level, an endogenous regenerative capacity. A better understanding of how islet cells are formed during development will also improve future regenerative strategies.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy working with at K2?<\/p>\n

I started working here five years ago, which gave me the opportunity to get to know the tools and needs of clinical research. I am part of a very heterogeneous multidisciplinary group of researchers, integrating genomics, molecular and cellular biology, bioinformatics and clinical research. We all study diabetes but different aspects of the disease from the molecular mechanisms to clinical aspects. I like the challenge of learning how to effectively communicate with scientists from different disciplines, and to see the diabetes research from so many other points of view. Being so close to the clinics at K2 also changed my perspective over my own research, especially regarding motivation and impact.[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[:no]Kva arbeidar du som? Eg er ein f\u00f8rsteamanuensis ved Senteret for diabetesforsking ved K2. Forskinga mi er retta mot korleis eigenskapane til celled\u00f8d styrer strategitypen for regenerering som blir brukt av biologiske system. Ved \u00e5 kombinera klassiske og nyleg genererte…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4474,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nyheter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18297,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158\/revisions\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k2info.w.uib.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}