Andrea presented her poster on "The presence of Gram positive bacteria within intervertebral disc tissue and their potential influence"
Every year, during the VPH Summer School, one of our student members has the opportunity to get recognized for their research with the Best Poster award; this year the award has been awarded to Andrea Nuesh with her poster titled 'The presence of Gram positive bacteria within intervertebral disc tissue and their potential influence', that has been evaluated by the speakers and instructors of the school as the most original and impactful work.
The focus of her research is the experimental exploration of the microbiome in degenerated intervertebral discs. Even though to date, there is increasing evidence for bacterial presence within the herniated disc, there are limited studies which determine whether bacteria are present in the intact IVD in vivo or whether they represent contamination. Andrea’s research used Immunohistochemical staining for bacteria to not only detect but also locate the bacteria within the disc of human patients. Furthermore, she investigated the influence of bacterial cell wall components on human Nucleus Pulposus cells in-vitro and showed a catabolic shift of the cells due to treatment.
"I am very delighted winning the VPH Best Poster Award amongst so many interesting posters from other dedicated researchers. It’s a great recognition for the hours put into this and the passion I have for this research"
Andrea graduated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) with a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences and Technology, followed by a master’s degree in 2021 with focus on medical technology focusing on Tissue Engenieering. For her master’s thesis, she joined the AO Research Institute Davos, where she was part of the group for Intervertebral Disc Regeneration where she investigated the influence of the secretome of primed mesenchymal stromal cells on Interleukin (IL) -1 stimulated Nucleus Pulposus cells.
She is now a PhD candidate under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions grant in the Disc4all project. At the beginning of her PhD she was based in the Biomolecular Sciences Research Centre (BMRC) at the Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, under the supervision of Prof. Christine Le Maitre and Dr. Mel Lacey. After a relocation of Prof. Christine Le Maitres lab, Andrea is now based in the Oncology and Metabolism Group at the Medical School of the University of Sheffield.
