Research and Training within the TissueHome Joint PhD Programme

Tissue homeostasis describes the property of organs and tissues to maintain their functional capacity during development, adulthood and aging. This includes the ability of tissue turnover under normal conditions, the ability to regenerate lost tissue upon injury and the possibility to compensate a loss of organ function by other means. There is increasing evidence that the capacity of stem cells as well as somatic cells to contribute to tissue homeostasis and organ regeneration is decreasing during the life cycle (embryogenesis, adulthood, and aging). Thus, understanding the regenerative capacity of somatic cells and stem cells is a key question in our aim to improve healthy aging.

The TissueHome consortium consisting of scientists from the University of Oulu and the Medical Faculty of Ulm University therefore aims to understand in more detail properties contributing to tissue homeostasis and thereby will train the next generation scientists in an interdisciplinary context to be able to obtain a comprehensive view of key processes of homeostasis and their changes in aging and how we can establish novel avenue for therapies.