Kunal Pednekar

 Kunal Pednekar is a PhD student in the Advanced Organ bioengineering and Therapeutics group at the University of Twente (Netherlands). He finished his master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the same University in 2021. His master’s thesis assignment focused on the development of a tumor stroma rich 3D microtissue model to understand the crosstalk between tumor cells and the cancer associated fibroblasts in pancreatic cancer. During his master’s degree, he joined the group of Prof. Anna Salvati in the Pharmacy department of the University of Groningen (Netherlands). The project involved studying the interaction of targeted liposomes, which were developed in the group of Prof. Jai Prakash, with cancer associated fibroblasts in pancreatic cancer. In particular, he investigated the potential of these liposomes to re-modulate activated fibroblasts back to their quiescent state. After the completion of the master’s degree, he was awarded the Twente Graduate School Bridging Fund allowing to continue his research on drug development before the official start of his PhD. In 2021, he started his PhD with Prof. Jai Prakash which focuses on modulating macrophages in the tumor immune microenvironment in primary and metastatic breast and colon cancer.