Roksana Pirzgalska
Master Student
Background
Graduation in Biotechnology
Research Activities
The successful isolation, purification and expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) ex-vivo will be an enormous boost to all current and future medical uses of these cells, which have an important role in the treatment of various cancer settings. Efficient, scalable and cost-effective techniques for fractionation and isolation of specific cell types are necessary to provide pure populations for medical research and therapy. In my work an immunoaffinity polymer-polymer system composed of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran will be tested for the selective recovery of HSC from umbilical cord blood (UCB). Monoclonal antibodies attached to stimuli responsive polymers will be used as macroaffinity ligands to direct the partitioning of target cells towards the PEG-rich phase.