Areas of interest

Endometriosis Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) Stillbirth

Research group

Endometrial Stem Cell Biology

Biography

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.