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Lisanne Laagland is a PhD candidate at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� who researches a potential new therapy for lower back pain within a large Horizon 2020 consortium, called the project. She shares what interests her most about this project and her experience as a PhD student working in such a multidisciplinary setting.

Chronic lower back pain is the leading cause of disability and affects the quality of life of millions of people and dogs worldwide. The iPSpine project brings together talented people from around the world in a joined effort to develop a new, advanced and regenerative therapy for the treatment of lower back pain.

Multiple aspects of the project interest Lisanne. Firstly, she really believes in regenerative medicine. “I think it is the most effective way of treatment, because regenerative medicine focuses on actually repairing the damaged tissue instead of only treating the symptoms”. Furthermore, as a veterinarian Lisanne loves the One Medicine approach of the iPSpine project. “Dogs are not only a model for human patients, but can also benefit from this new therapy as patients themselves”.

Lisanne thinks that working in a large collaboration has many advantages. It enables her to build a network including multiple international institutes and universities. Next to that, working together with people that have different expertise in the field allows her to view the topic from multiple angles. “Working together with experts on different topics in the field really broadens the scope of my PhD.’’

Working together with experts on different topics in the field really broadens the scope of my PhD.

Furthermore, Lisanne is very positive about how all partners work together. “Within the consortium we update each other regularly and share information and protocols which enables us to move forward as a team.” Also outside of the iPSpine project, the consortium wants to share their obtained knowledge. All developed standardized procedures and guidelines will eventually be published in an open digital platform which will help other researchers in designing similar Proof of Concept translational studies for their own advanced therapies. “It is exciting to be part of this development!”

Overall, Lisanne would recommend working in a big consortium such as iPSpine. She would love to see more similar research collaborations and open science. Because together we can do so much more than on our own.