Dr Shanti Gurung is a medical graduate and a postdoctoral scientist in the Endometrial Stem Cells Group at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Her current research projects focus on endometrial mesenchymal stem cells and extracellular vesicles with a focus on Women’s Health.

Dr Gurung completed her Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours, 2013) and PhD (2017) under the supervision of Professors Caroline E. Gargett and Jerome A. Werkmeister at The Ritchie Centre/Hudson Institute, focusing on expansion of undifferentiated endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (eMSC) for clinical application, especially Women’s Health. During her PhD, she developed a reproducible protocol for eMSC expansion using a small molecule regulator that generated a patent application.

In 2018, Dr Gurung joined Centre for Reproduction/Hudson Institute under Professor Lois Salamonsen and undertook training on the role of endometrial epithelial extracellular vesicles/EV on embryo implantation using in vitro, ex vivo (using mouse embryos) and mouse model of embryo implantation. She also trained on proteomics analyses of EVs in decidual cells. Dr Gurung relocated to The Ritchie Centre under Profs Gargett and Werkmeister to extend the potential application of EV from eMSC for therapeutic use and in endometriosis as a non-invasive diagnostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target. She is skilled in cellular and molecular biology, RNA sequencing, proteomics, bioinformatics analyses and she is also experienced in animal surgeries.

Selected publications

• Darzi S, Deane JA, Nold CA, Edwards S, Gough DJ, Mukherjee S, Gurung S, Tan KS, Vashi AV, Werkmeister JA, Gargett CE (2018) Endometrial mesenchymal stem/stromal cells modulate the macrophage response to implanted polyamide/gelatin composite mesh in immunocompromised and immunocompetent mice. (Accepted in Sci Rep)

• Gurung S, Deane JA, Darzi S, Werkmeister JA, Gargett CE (2018) In vivo survival of human endometrial mesenchymal stem cells transplanted under the kidney capsule of immunocompromised mice. Stem Cells Dev 27(1):35-43.

• Gargett CE, Gurung S (2016) Endometrial mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, their fibroblast progeny in endometriosis and more. Biol Reprod 94(6):129.

• Gurung S, Werkmeister JA, Gargett CE (2016) Endometrial MSC and tissue engineering for pelvic organ prolapse repair. In The Biology and Therapeutic Application of Mesenchymal Cells. Anderson K, ed.  John Wiley & Sons.

• Letouzey V, Tan KS, Deane JA, Ulrich D, Gurung S, Ong YR, Gargett C (2015) Isolation and characterisation of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in the ovine endometrium. PloS One 10(5):e0127531.

• Gurung S, Deane JA, Masuda H, Maruyama T, Gargett CE (2015) Stem cells in endometrial physiology. Semin Reprod Med 33(5):326-32.

• Gurung S, Werkmeister JA, Gargett CE (2015) Inhibition of transforming growth factor-beta receptor signaling promotes culture expansion of undifferentiated human endometrial mesenchymal stem/stromal cells. Sci Rep 5:15042.