PhD candidate “mitochondrial function and tissue regeneration”, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School NUTRIM - Dept. of Respiratory Medicine

CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE (COPD) is a prevalent inflammatory disease characterized by irreversible airflow obstruction as well as skeletal muscle wasting. The disease has high morbidity and mortality, and with more than 300 million deaths yearly, it is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide.   Disturbed damage and repair responses have been implicated in both lung and muscle pathology in COPD, resulting in airway disease, alveolar tissue destruction (emphysema) and skeletal muscle weakness. The tissue damage in COPD is irreversible and there is an urgent need to understand and target the mechanisms leading to impaired tissue regeneration in COPD. Convincing evidence implicates a role for mitochondrial impairment in lung and muscle pathology in COPD. Funded by a ZonMW-Open consortium grant, we will address this in our project MITOREG.

In the work packages of this sub-project of MITOREG, advanced cell culture models of muscle regeneration will be deployed to investigate the contribution of mitochondrial dysfunction to impaired muscle recovery in COPD. Moreover, the role of mitochondrial dynamics in muscle-lung cross-talk will be interrogated using organ on chip approaches in parallel with genetically modified mice in a model COPD, and key-findings will be verified in patient material. Finally, in the experimental models, the potential of interventions aimed at restoring mitochondrial health to improve muscle and lung tissue regeneration will be assessed.