Salwa Suliman

Dr. Salwa Suliman was awarded her TMS Starting Grant on December 4th 2020. She received her doctorate at the University of Bergen in 2015. She continued as a researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bergen, with research stays at Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Department of Applied Oral Sciences, The Forsyth Institute, USA.

Suliman’s research deals with stem cells; unique cells that can develop into different tissue specialised cells, such as bone tissue cells. Over decades stem cells have been isolated and expanded in the laboratory and combined with biomaterials to provide a therapy to reconstruct large bone defects. These stem-cell constructs, when implanted, interact with the recipient’s immune system and these interactions, that determine the success of the therapy, remain largely unexplored. The project is aimed at understanding these interactions between the implanted stem cells and the host’s immune cells and how they impact the microenvironment and the outcome of the therapy. The project also aims at steering bone regeneration in models with compromised healing, such as in aging and chronic diseases. This will help us unravel how systemic immune challenges can impact stem-cell based bone regeneration. Eventually this knowledge will be used to design advanced immune-driven bone regeneration therapies.