Clinical Lecturer & Consultant Surgeon Janet Kung Contact details Email: janet.kung@ed.ac.uk Appointments and Activities Janet Kung graduated in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 2005. After Foundation Programme in South East Scotland Deanery, she was awarded the Joint Medical Research Council/Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (MRC/RCSEd) Clinical Research Training Fellowship in 2008 which funded her PhD studies. She was appointed Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Specialty Registrar in Surgery in 2011 and has a specialist interest in hepatopancreatobiliary surgery. Project Title Investigating the liver progenitor cell niche in the developing human liver. Project Summary Liver transplantation is currently the only curative treatment for patients with end-stage chronic liver disease. Due to organ shortage, attention has been focussed on the ability to restore liver mass and function using alternative approaches. The liver inherently has considerable regenerative capacity through hepatocyte division and liver progenitor cell (LPC) proliferation. Human embryonic stem cells and adult somatic cells can be differentiated to the hepatic lineage, and may provide clinically useful material for drug testing, bio-artificial liver device and cellular transplantation. Their limited functionality in vitro, however, warrants further understanding of human development and improved tissue culture conditions. Animal models of different forms of liver disease and human clinical trials are invaluable in translating in vitro models to in vivo transplantation. The project aims to characterise the transcriptomic signature of foetal LPCs and the niche in which they proliferate and differentiate, as well as to delineate the molecular mechanisms participating in the emergence of LPC identity and function. Project Funding Tenovus Scotland Small Research Grant Moray Endowment Fund MRC/RCSEd Clinical Research Training Fellowship. Project Supervisors Professor James A Ross Professor Stuart J Forbes Dr Patrick WF Hadoke. Qualifications 2002 BSc Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh 2005 MB ChB, University of Edinburgh 2007 MRCS(Ed), Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh This article was published on 2024-02-06
