Master Student position: Modic changes in Chronic Low Back Pain

Short description

We want to understand the pathomechanisms of Modic changes and we develop the first disease-modifying treatment for it. Modic changes are painful vertebral bone marrow lesions often found in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). A particular interest is to unravel a potential role of bacteria in the degeneration of the intervertebral disc and the development of Modic changes. Newest data show that the disc harbours a rich microbiome. To this end we investigate bone marrow and discs from CLBP patients undergoing spine surgery at the Balgrist hospital. We use state-of-the-art analytic methods (metagenomics, mass spectrometry, RNA sequencing, flow cytometry) and in-vitro animal explant models (no animal work).

Keywords

Low Back Pain, Bacteria, Stem Cell, Proteomics, Transcriptomics

Conditions

Enthusiasm and commitment to the research topic. Interest to work in a highly motivated and team-oriented research environment.

Links

https://www.dudli-lab.ch/