TNMU Post-Graduate Student Completed Internship at the University of Santiago de Compostela as Part of the Erasmus+ Program

Post-graduate student of the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology, Svitlana Palii, as part of the Erasmus+ KA107 program, participated in a professional internship at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) since March 2022 to April 2023.
Svitlana Palii interned in the scientific cardiovascular team (Cardiovascular Area) under the leadership of Professor Ezekiel Alvarez Castro on the basis of CiMUS (Research Centre for Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases)

The main goal of the internship was to develop and test the “organ-on-a-chip” method for the study of endothelial dysfunction and establish the molecular mechanisms of the development of endothelial dysfunction.
During her internship, Svitlana Palii got acquainted with a new experimental method – the analysis of the function of endothelial cells under the conditions of flow in a microfluidic system.

Together with her mentors, she developed a research project plan to analyse endothelial dysfunction in an in vitro fluid model: established specific experimental conditions (flow/shear stress conditions, conditions for HUVEC cells, stimulus concentrations) and began to apply a more realistic model to analyse endothelial functions. The intern learned about the requirements for manufacturing and designing microfluidic chips, developed and tested the “organ-on-a-chip” method for studying endothelial dysfunction.
Svitlana Palii acquired skills in working with primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). She learned how to maintain them in a nutrient medium, transplant according to their multiplication factor, prepare HUVEC cells for experiments, as well as cultivate them in 3D systems in flow conditions (organ-on-a-chip). S. Palii repeatedly conducted studies of endothelial cells in microfluidic channels of dynamic and static models in accordance with a previously developed plan.

Under the supervision of technicians Pilar Gueiro Lopez and Lucia Alvarino Sanjurio, S. Palii learned to prepare solutions necessary for experiments and understood the principle of operation of a flow cytometer and learned to work with different types of microscopes, namely: Leica DMI6000B fully automated inverted researcher microscope, Confocal Microscope – Leica Microsystem and immunofluorescence microscopes Olympus. The obtained images were processed in the programs “LAS X”, “Aivia Community 11.0.1” and “ImageJ”.
S. Palii developed an experimental model to analyse the effect of pro-inflammatory stimuli on endothelial cells in a biomimetic context and obtained results that will be presented at the 2nd WORKSHOP ON ENDOTHILIUM – FROM PHYSIOLOGY TO DISEASE MECHANISMS, which will be held on June 9, 2023 in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

On June 11-12, 2022, together with the team, TNMU PhD student presented a poster at the 1st CiMUS Symposium “From bench to human translational research” on the topic “Vessel-on-a-chip: advanced in vitro model for endothelial function analysis”.

On January 13-14, 2023, the cardiology conference CardioCHUS 2023 took place, at which the team of Svitlana Palii presented the results achieved during 2022.
On January 19, together with the BFlow team, the lecture “BFlow, example of translating an idea from the lab to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry” was held. The lecture was held in the CiMUS theatre, followed by a workshop on the work of microfluidic organs.

Together with teams of scientists from USC (University of Santiago de Compostela) and TNMU, they published a review article “Vessels-on-a-Chip: A Powerful Tool for Investigating Endothelial COVID-19 Fingerprints”.
During the internship, TNMU PhD student attended a large number of lectures and work-shops with the support of USC. Presentations of new developments made it possible to understand how certain “innovations” work and what results can be achieved using them in your work.
After a year of effective work and great support from mentors (O.O. Shevchuk and Ezekiel Alvarez), it was possible to develop an idea and implement it.

Thanks to the Erasmus+ KA107 program, while in Santiago de Copostela, TNMU PhD student met peers and scientists, made many friends, visited several cities in Spain and extremely beautiful locations. This period made it possible to get to know the traditions of Galicia and new friends from different parts of the world.

The experience gained during the mobility will allow to expand and implement new modern methods of molecular biology in the scientific research of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, will give impetus to new scientific ideas and the output of scientific results to a qualitatively new level.

The internship created new opportunities for cooperation between the University of Santiago de Compostela and I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University.

Svitlana Palii expresses her deepest appreciation to the administration and International Affairs Department of Ternopil National Medical University, as well as to the mobility curator of “Erasmus+ KA107” Isabel Barreiro and Professor Ezequiel Alvarez Castro for the opportunity to be a participant in the program and the experience gained.

The information was provided by post-graduate student of the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology Svitlana Palii.