Liver progenitors and hepatic organoids

Liver progenitors and hepatic organoids

Speaker: Professor Meritxell Huch, Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK

Speaker Biography: After obtaining her PhD degree at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain, she moved to the Netherlands to join the laboratory of Professor Hans Clevers in order to redirect the focus of her research into Adult Stem Cell Biology. In her postdoctoral stay, she isolated adult mouse stomach and mouse and human liver cells and proved these can be expanded in culture, forming stomach and liver organoids in vitro. 

In 2014 Dr Meritxell Huch established her independent lab at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, where she works on elucidating the replicative potential of adult stem cells during tissue regeneration and disease.

Research prizes and awards:

In 2018, Dr Huch was awarded The Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal for 2018. The British Society for Cell Biology. “For pioneering research on stem cell, in particular, the work on liver organoids”. Other prizes and awards include 2016: The Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence. “For innovative methods and research that resulted in novel discoveries and inventions”; 2014: Wellcome-Beit Prize for outstanding scientists of the 2014 year as additional recognition to the success in obtaining Wellcome Trust Fellowship to become independent; 2014: NC3Rs International Prize. National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research, UK. “For growing ‘mini-livers’ in culture”.