LSTM’s Dr Cassandra Modahl is one of this year’s group of biomedical and health researchers awarded Springboard funding to help promote their careers.
Springboard is a funding and acceleration programme run by the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS), which offers a bespoke package of support to biomedical researchers at the start of their first independent post. The package includes funding of up to £125,000 over two years and access to the Academy’s acclaimed mentoring and career development programme.
The project Dr Modahl received funding for is called: Identification of endogenous mediators contributing to snake venom-induced cytotoxicity and is concerned with snakebite and antivenom solutions.
Snakebite is a Neglected Tropical Disease that kills over 100,000 people each year, leaving over 400,000 surviving victims with permanent physical disabilities. Antivenom can treat snakebite, but it does not prevent or reverse tissue damage caused by snake venom, which leads to amputations, irreversible nerve damage, sight loss, chronic ulcers, or direct organ injury.
Snake venom is a complex mixture of proteins and peptides that not only directly damage cells, but also initiate cascades of cellular events, most of which are poorly defined, and can result in irreparable tissue damage. To investigate these cascades, Cassandra’s project establishes organ-on-a-chip and organoid lab models (simplified versions of an organ, outside of the body, used to mimic key functions, structures, and biological complexities of the organ) of human skin and kidney. These two tissues experience severe damage after a snakebite.
Using gene editing approaches, the team will identify which factors contribute to the amplification of tissue damage and which factors are vital for tissue repair. By defining the host responses and contributory factors that exacerbate the severity of morbidity-causing snakebite envenoming, they can design treatments that are more effective at overcoming snakebite tissue death. On winning the award, Dr Modahl said: “I am incredibly grateful for the AMS Springboard award, it has given me with the start-up funds to begin working on my own projects, whilst generating data that can be developed into larger grant applications."