Aleksandra obtained her PhD in Stem Cell Biology from University of Liverpool, UK in 2010. She worked as an EU “NephroTools” project manager (University of Liverpool) and as a postdoc in Developmental Biology laboratory at University of Oulu, Finland. In her research, she focused on studying kidney development and disease. Aleksandra used renal organoids to study the nephrogenic potential of embryonic stem cells, stem cells differentiation towards kidney linages and signaling during kidney development.

In Europe, there are nearly 90.000 patients added yearly to waiting lists for organ transplantations, and the majority of them (81%) need kidney transplants. About 37% of these cases are due to developed nephrotoxicity during a course of treatment for other diseases. Therefore, at MERLN, Aleksandra will be working on a BIRDIE project focusing on a development of physiologically relevant 3D models of kidney tubulo-interstitium by combining the 3D bioprinting and organ-on-chip technologies in order to generate new testing platform.