Stefan Giselbrecht Email & Phone Number

Stefan Giselbrecht graduated from the University of Saarbrücken, Germany, with a Diploma in Biology. He did his doctorate at the Institute of Microstructure Technology (TUKarlsruhe/Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT, Germany) and the Institute of Medical Engineering and Biophysics (KIT) under the supervision of Professor Volker Saile and received his PhD degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. From 2007 to 2014 he headed the research group 'Biomimetic Microdevices' at the Institute for Biological Interfaces-1 at KIT. Since 2014, he works at MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine and is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences of Maastricht University.Stefan Giselbrecht and his group is particularly interested in developing innovative micro engineered/microfluidic systems to create complex artificial microenvironments for advanced, stem cell-derived in vitro models. His lab is called "Morphogenetic Micro Engineering" where he is trying to decode morphogenesis in vitro using micro engineered systems and a developmental biology approach.The name of our multidisciplinary lab ‘Morphogenetic Micro Engineering’ particularly emphasizes our approach of using 3D micro engineered/microfluidic systems to control the number, position, polarization, migration, behaviour, and fate of cells in 3D stem cell-based models (embryoid bodies, organoids) e.g. by exposing selected regions or the whole multicellular construct to spatiotemporally defined gradients of soluble molecules. We are intrigued by the idea to recapitulate and guide self-organizational processes in multicellular 3D systems on multiple scales by creating artificial signalling centers and providing cultured cells a fixed extrinsic coordinate system. These new systems will help us to mimic and coordinate tissue- and organogenesis in vitro, to gain new insights into early embryonic developmental processes, and how positional information is processed by cells. By combining micro engineering and 3D stem cell biology, we are exploring new perspectives on self-organizing biological systems in order to identify and elucidate intrinsic rules and key regulatory mechanisms, which are vital to form complex tissues and organs. In the long term, we will use this newly acquired knowledge in more applied contexts to better control wound healing and tissue repair to set the stage for next-generation Regenerative Medicine solutions.