Bahar Arik is a postdoctoral scientist affiliated with the Department of Pediatric Pulmonology and the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht). After graduating with master’s degree in Oncology from VU Medical Center in Amsterdam, she started her Ph.D. in the Ocular Angiogenesis research group at the Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Medical Biology at Amsterdam UMC. She investigated the molecular, genetic, and metabolic regulation of endothelial cell differentiation during (pathological) angiogenesis. During this project, she gained ample experience in carrying out large series of molecular and cell biology laboratory techniques. After obtaining her Ph.D., Bahar continued her work as a postdoctoral scientist in the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht. Here, she investigated the role of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their secretome in the repair of intestinal tissue in Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD). She developed a novel co-culture model of MSCs and chemo-damaged intestinal organoids to study both direct and indirect effects of MSCs on the intestinal epithelium to improve the implementation and better prediction of the response to MSC treatment in GvHD patients. Since March 2022, Bahar has been working within the Center for Living Technologies on the development and automation of primary cell and organoid-based disease models.