Three Bond medical students have had the unique opportunity to work in the team of Europe’s most prestigious tissue engineering network “MyJoint” during an intensive four-week stem cell cultivation course at Bond University.
Fourth year Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery students Lipi Shukla, Jaydeep Ubeja and Ashvind Prabahran took part in the voluntary extra-curricular course taught by Prof Patrick Warnke and Dr Qin Liu, a member of MyJoint based at University of Kiel, Germany.
The course focussed on the cultivation of stem cells which will ultimately used to help patients ‘grow their own’ replacement body parts.
“The students were learning how to cultivate stem cells, monitor cell behaviour, perform proliferation tests and interpret the findings for potential clinical use,” said Bond University Professor of Surgery, Dr Patrick Warnke who is a world-renowned expert in this cutting edge field and also the head of Myjoint.
Essentially the students were required to revive several stem cell lines that were harvested from patients in Germany and transported to Australia as part of Bond’s first human stem cell bank for scientific purposes.
During the week-long transit, the cells had to be stored at a temperature of -30°C and then revived when they arrived at the Faculty laboratory.
“If these adult stem cells proliferate successfully, they could be used to regenerate new bone, cartilage or other tissue,” said Dr Warnke.
“For instance, they could be grown on an artificial bone structure material so they could be implanted into a patient with bone defects.”
Through the European-based MyJoint consortium, Dr Warnke and Dr Liu have already garnered world-wide headlines in this pioneering procedure when the MyJoint team used stem cell technology to grow a new jawbone on the back of a cancer patient, using the patient’s own body as a ‘bioreactor’ to minimise the chances of rejection. The new jawbone was ultimately removed and relocated to replace the patient’s surgically removed facial structure. The next goal is to use stem cell and grow the worldwide first biological joint replacement in a human in Australia.
“Working with Dr Liu on this four-week stem cell course puts our Bond medical students at the forefront of tissue engineering and emerging regenerative therapies,” said Dr Warnke.
“It will give them the confidence to discuss stem cell therapies with their future patients and also learn more about the ethical issues associated with the use of stem cells.”
Course participant Lipi Shukla will be looking at the possibility of growing the stem cells on artificial skin collagen membranes to replace damaged skin tissue in patients afflicted by facial tumours.
“After completing my elective rotation in Plastic Surgery last year, I was not only inspired by the enormous impact reconstructive surgery has on a person’s life, I became fairly certain it was the career path for me,” said Lipi.
“We are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work with a surgeon like Dr. Warnke, who has extensive expertise in the revolutionary field of stem-cell engineering. Doing laboratory studies and growing stem cells is exciting and something I would not be able to do as a medical student elsewhere.”
