Students

University of Copenhagen (UCPH) ,Denmark

Edward Ciputra

B.Biomed, M.Sc

Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology

Indonesian

Edward Ciputra earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedicine from Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences (I3L), Indonesia. He then continued with master study as part of the Neurasmus - Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Neuroscience. He spent his first year at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands and completed his second year at Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal. His previous work focused on primary and metastatic brain cancer, aligning with his interest in understanding cancer-nerve interactions. In the BonePainIII, Edward will focus on exploring the involvement of myeloma microenvironment cells in multiple myeloma-induced bone pain for targeted therapy.

University of Copenhagen (UCPH) ,Denmark

Yingyu Tang

BSc, MMedSci

Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology

Chinese

Yingyu Tang studied her Bachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at East China University of Science and Technology (China), followed by a Master Degree in Translational Physiology and Pharmacology at Karolinska Institute (Sweden). Her previous work focused on exploring pathological mechanisms of diseases by using in vitro and in vivo models. In the BonePainIII Network, she will be studying nociceptive mechanisms in the rare bone disease Fibrous Dysplasia.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) ,Sweden

Juan Antonio Vazquez Mora

BSc, MSc

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

Mexican

Juan Antonio Vazquez Mora earned his Bachelor's degree as a Biopharmacist Chemist, followed by a Master's degree in Clinical Analysis from the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas in Mexico. His Bachelor and Masters work centered on understanding the mechanisms underlying bone pain in neurodegenerative diseases and the role of sensory innervation in chronic pain conditions. In the BonePainIII network, his planned research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of refractory pain in rheumatoid arthritis, particularly examining the roles of osteoclasts and the protein netrin-1. The project aims to determine how osteoclast activity contributes to persistent pain and changes in bone innervation, even after inflammation has subsided.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) ,Sweden

Khosiyat Makhmudova

BSc, MSc

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

Uzbek

Khosiyat earned her BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Wroclaw, Poland. Her MSc thesis research was conducted at the University of Virginia, focusing on the structure & function of the ArhGEF17 protein. After graduating, Khosiyat worked as a research assistant, gaining experience across diverse fields, including intestinal physiology and epigenetics. With her broad scientific background, Khosiyat is passionate about clinically oriented research that directly impacts patients. Within the BonePainIII network, her project will focus on unraveling neuroimmune interactions in the dorsal root ganglia and their role in rheumatoid arthritis-associated pain.

University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) ,The Netherlands

Virginia Vergani

BSc, MSc

Center for Translational Immunology

Italian

Virginia Vergani graduated from the University of Surrey (UK) with a BSc in Biomedical Science (with Honours). She then completed a Master degree in Neuroscience at King’s College London (UK). During her master, she completed her project investigating pain in rheumatoid arthritis, where she developed her interest for investigating the role of neuro-immune interactions in pain. In the BonePainIII network, she is a PhD candidate at the Eijkelkamp group at UMC Utrecht. Her project involves investigating the mechanisms behind osteoarthritis pain, with a specific interest in metabolism.

University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) ,The Netherlands

Muriel Zanicolo

BSc, MSc Biology

Center for Translational Immunology

Italian

Muriel Zanicolo received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biology from the University of Regensburg (Germany). Her main project has focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying social behavior in male rats at the Department of Behavioral and Molecular Neuroscience. In the BonePainIII network, her research will focus on assessing a novel, non-opioid therapeutic that engages endogenous bone pain resolution pathways.

Institute for research and Innovation in Health (i3S) ,Portugal

Pol Jean-Mairet

BSc, MSc

Neuro & Skeletal Circuits

Spanish/Swiss

Pol Jean Mairet holds both a BSc and MSc in Molecular Health Sciences from ETH Zürich, having completed his MSc thesis at Harvard, followed by a research project at the NIH/NCI. In the lab of Prof. Senthil Muthuswamy in the U.S., he investigated gemcitabine resistance in PDAC patients, using cell lines and patient-derived organoid models. He also spent nearly two years at Hoffmann-La Roche (Zürich), where he specialized in 3D immunophenotyping using multiplexed confocal microscopy to spatio-temporally characterize assembloids and complex organoid co-culture systems. Currently based in the lab of Prof. Meriem Lamghari at in Porto, he focuses on engineering fully humanized microfluidic models to study neuroskeletal interactions and bone metastasis-associated pain. His research integrates iPSCs-derived sensory neurons with advanced microfluidics and co-culture models.

Nordic Bioscience (NB) ,Denmark

Andrea Beatriz Gonçalves Bezerra

BSc, MSc

Department of Endocrinology

Brazilian

Andrea Bezerra has done her Bachelor’s degree in Sport science at the University of Pernambuco (Brazil). In her Master’s Degree at the Faculty of Sports of the University of Porto (Portugal) and at the Department of Sports Medicine of the University of Padova (Italy) as an Erasmus student, she investigated about the bone physiology, obesity and bariatric Surgery. Afterwards, she had a research fellow at the University of Tras-os-Montes (Portugal) to investigate potential antimicrobial sources against multi-drug-resistant bacteria from Diabetic foot ulcers. Currently, as a PhD student in the BonePainIII, she will explore the Calcitonin/Amylin Receptor Agonist ability to improve bone pain and structure in metabolic rat models of osteoarthritis.

AstraZeneca (AZ) ,United Kingdom

Neeharika Senthilkumar

Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Master of Medical Sciences (MMSc)

Early Respiratory and Immunology

Indian

Neeharika obtained an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (Dubai, UAE). She collaborated on diverse interdisciplinary projects and became interested in using her skills to tackle challenges in biomedicine. This led her to Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) where she pursued a Master's in Molecular Medicine. She completed her master's thesis at Assoc. Prof. Magnusson’s group (Uppsala University), where she helped establish patient-derived blood vessel organoid models for investigating rare genetic diseases. After she graduated, Neeharika joined STEMCELL Technologies (R&D, Cambridge, UK) as a Research Associate, where she continued honing her skills in stem cell and complex 3-D organoid culture and gained experience automating high-throughput cultures. Within the BonePainIII network, Neeharika will develop an in vitro model of osteoarthritis and investigate the impact of cellular crosstalk on pain and disease pathology.

Cellectricon (CT) ,Sweden

Andrea Lovinčić Babić

BSc, MSc

Department of Chronic Pain Research

Croatian

Andrea Lovincic Babic earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Zagreb in Croatia, where her research focused on the molecular mechanisms underlying Niemann-Pick type C disease. Following her graduation, she was involved with the discovery of novel IRE1 inhibitors at Cell Stress Discoveries in Galway, Ireland and later worked as a QC analyst in a pharmaceutical company Viatris. As part of the BonePainIII network, Andrea will develop novel humanized in-vitro models consisting of co-cultures of neurons and non-neuronal cells to broaden our understanding of rheumatoid arthritis.