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Blood in a lab: A Ph.D. Defence interview with Svetlana Soboleva

Photo of Svetlana Soboleva and her PhD Thesis Cover
Photo of Svetlana Soboleva (right) and an image of her PhD thesis cover (left).

Svetlana Soboleva is set to defend her Ph.D. thesis on 13 April, 2022. For the past few years her world has revolved around red blood cells, as she has worked to establish methods that allow for the generation of enucleated cells, using immortalized erythroid cell lines, to develop erythrocytes. In short, she’s been working to find ways to produce red blood cells in a lab.

In this interview she tells us more about her research, her love for red blood cells, and her time at the Lund Stem Cell Center.

What have you been working with during your Ph.D. studies?

Svetlana begins by highlighting the public health rationale for her research, noting how her findings contribute to what she hopes might one day, make an impact in the lives of patients around the world.

“Well let’s start with the why - blood transfusion is a lifesaving procedure where the patient’s blood is replaced or supplemented by a blood donation. This is needed for several reasons - when a person suffers from anemia, in acute situations where life-threatening blood loss has occurred, just to name a few. However, many patients around the world have restricted access to safe blood transfusions, making blood production in the lab an alternative approach and one possible solution to the problem of availability. The source of red blood cells and their creation in a lab, was the focus of my thesis,” explained Svetlana.

The goal of Svetlana’s research was to establish methods allowing the generation of enucleated cells using immortalized, developing erythrocytes, also known as red blood cells. “You might wonder directly what this means – in a nutshell, I was working with cell lines and trying try to enucleate them or get rid of their nucleus. This is a specific characteristic of red blood cells, as mature functional red blood cells in all mammals, they lack a nucleus,” highlighted Svetlana.

“So, to do this I carried out three projects each of which aimed to help in identifying the best material to create fast, affordable methods for the efficient generation of erythrocytes – contributing to the knowledge base, with the hope that this can one day be applied to produce functional erythrocytes in the lab.”

“First, I tested thousands of chemical compounds and found that some enhanced the generation of enucleated cells but that these produced fragile erythrocytes that did not function properly. I also looked at gene expression following treatment with these chemical compounds to understand why this happened and found an approach that allowed for rapid and efficient production of red blood cells in the lab. Then I established a new erythroid cell line as a potential candidate source for the efficient generation of red blood cells using a unique immortalization strategy. Here I found that different clones gave rise to different types of red blood cells with adult, fetal, or embryonic features - an unexpected and intriguing finding which needs to be further explored. In my third project, I investigated the molecular heterogeneity in hematopoietic stem cells, underlying their potential to become erythrocytes. These findings were also very interesting, but further investigations are required to understand this in more detail,” stated Svetlana.

Can you tell us more about the cover of your thesis?

Glancing over the cover of Svetlana’s thesis you can see the simple beauty she’s experienced each day, through her microscope. “For my thesis cover I wanted to keep it simple – I think in the end it came out perfectly something that is calm, a little bit artistic, very much personal and yet straight to the point. I wanted to have something scientific, very close to what I've been working on. I also wanted to show case my love for red blood cells and share with others, that which I have always found beautiful. That is why I used this image of red blood cells which I took myself and edited in a bit of an artistic way,” explained Svetlana.

How did you end up doing a PhD at Lund Stem Cell Center?

Svetlana moved from Lithuania to study as a master student here at Lund University. “My first contact with the Center was through the Stem Cell Research School and I later joined the Flygare Research Group to conduct my master’s thesis project. At the end of my studies, I met my supervisor Kenichi Miharada, someone who was equally interested in red blood cells and who coincidentally had an interesting project on the subject matter and was looking for a Ph.D. student. I applied and the rest was history,” answered Svetlana.

What have you found the most enjoyable during your Ph.D. studies and what has then been the most challenging aspect?

Reflecting on her time at Lund Stem Cell Center, Svetlana noted that there were many things that were very enjoyable even during tougher times.. “The most enjoyable moment was for me was seeing human red blood cells, for the first time, under the microscope lens. In that moment I could just feel a huge smile stretch across my face – a very magical feeling of wonder and amazement that I will never forget. Also, I had the opportunity to work on my projects and see results thanks to the special techniques that I was able to apply. In particular, was one method of analysing cells, which is very tedious during analysis, but is also amazing. I could see each individual cell, treat it with a chemical compound and watch what happened next unfold right before my eyes. I could see the results immediately.”

“One of the more difficult or challenging aspects of my Ph.D. studies was time. Time just moves too fast, especially when you enjoy what you do. With so many projects involved in this thesis there was also a lot to be done and, in many ways, this became my main purpose which could be a bit tough, even lonely at times. But at the same time, I had this intense commitment and curiosity that really was driving me to see, explore, learn, and test as much as possible. I really loved what I was doing from the very beginning and keeping this in mind became a big motivating factor even during those tougher times, helping to make sure I never gave up,” remarked Svetlana.

What are your plans following your PhD defence?

For Svetlana the future is an open road, “I am not quite sure just yet. I don’t have a real plan in place right at this time,” she remarked. “What I do know is that no matter what I will follow my heart and find something that I love to do - something similar to what I have been doing. But first I will take a little break following my defence before looking for new opportunities, most likely here in Sweden. Anything is possible really,” concluded Svetlana.

Svetlana Soboleva will defend her Ph.D. thesis “Blood in a Lab: Using Immortalized Erythroid Cell Lines as a Source of Blood Transfusion” on Wednesday, 13 April at 09:00. To find out more about the event please visit our calendar.

The opponent is Dr. Narla Mohandas, New York Blood Center

Main supervisor is Principal Investigator Kenichi Miharada.

The chairman of the dissertation is Professor Jonas Larsson, Division of Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy.

Contacts

 

Svetlana Soboleva
Svetlana Soboleva. Photo credit: Kennet Ruona. 

Svetlana Soboleva

Ph.D. Student
Miharada Research Group
Svetlana [dot] Soboleva [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (Svetlana[dot]Soboleva[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)

Profile in Lund University research portal


Portrait Kenichi Miharada
Kenichi Miharada

Kenichi Miharada

Principal Investigator
Assistant professor, Group leader
+46 46 2220592
Kenichi [dot] Miharada [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (Kenichi[dot]Miharada[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)

Profile in Lund University research portal