The Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, UCLA is looking for an undergraduate student to join their research team.

UCLA PI Name: Bruno Peault, PhD

Our laboratory has identified organ resident mesenchymal stem cells, which can differentiate into bone, cartilage, adipose tissue, smooth and skeletal muscle, and developed several projects to uncover the role of those stem cells in 1- tissue turnover and regeneration, and 2- pathologic development: fibrosis (joint, kidney, skeletal muscle) and atherogenesis (atheroma plaque formation in blood vessels).

We are now recruiting undergraduate students to work on the following themes:

– Gene therapy of OA (osteo-arthritis). In OA, irreversible degradation of joint cartilage is accompanied by inflammation and fibrosis, causing pain and severely affecting motion. The project aims to control joint pain, inflammation, and fibrosis by transducing siRNAs (small interfering RNAs) into relevant affected cell types.

– Stem cell dysfunction in lipedema. Lipedema is the dramatic and uncontrolled accumulation, in affected females (around 1/10), of subcutaneous abnormal adipose tissue in lower limbs, and eventually in the upper part of the body (arms, belly). Long misdiagnosed as obesity, lipedema has specific features: pain, fibrosis. The etiology of lipedema is unknown and we have hypothesized that qualitative and/or quantitative defects in mesenchymal stem cells are causing this severe, invalidating disease. The projects consists in the localization and quantification of mesenchymal stem cells in lipedema tissues, followed by their purification, culture, and functional assessment.

Candidates should commit to work at least 20 hours/week at the Orthopaedic Hospital Research Center, UCLA.

Please send resume and cover letter to Bruno Peault at bpeault@mednet.ucla.edu.