Thank you for attending

Thank you for attending our recent Stem Cell Conversations.

On 1st July, we heard from Dr Kathryn Stok (Head of the Integrative Cartilage Research Group) and Jinia Lilianty, a PhD student at MCRI, who shared an insight into their labs’ work and how they are collaborating. The Musculoskeletal Research lab is currently developing iPSC to chondrogenic in vitro differentiation protocol using rotary orbital culture technique. They will use Felix, developed by the Stok Lab, to examine the impact of collagen II mutations in the biomechanical properties of our cartilage organoids.

On 8th June, we heard from Sabrina Islam and Andrew Lonsdale who spoke about taking on a bioinformatics quest and the art of collaboration, respectively. Their very positive talks and outlooks were very refreshing to see and hear. Sabrina charted a course that covered how to get started, the questions you need to ask along the way and how to get to your final destination. Andrew gave a fantastic outline of what to expect when entering into a collaboration from a bioinformatics perspective. The following links relate to their talks, the Data and Software Carpentries tool was brought up by both speakers as a great way to improve those skill sets.

On the 15th of July we heard from Drs Vijay Rajagopal and Sian Supski who presented energetic and enthusiastic insights into the world of synthetic biology from different perspectives. Vijay showed how amazing the engineering properties of cells relate to function and what efforts to try and understand and harness those properties are being performed. Sian conveyed the importance of how narrative and storytelling are integral in explaining central concepts around synthetic biology.

Thank you to all these presenters for talking to us! If you have any questions or comments for any of our presenters, contact them directly and continue the conversation

I would also like to thank the ECR Leadership Group: Sean Wilson, Nadia Rajab and Dr Rita Leitoguinho for their leadership in planning and moderating our Stem Cell Conversations. Please reach out to any of us, if you would like to present at a Stem Cell Conversation or if you have any ideas for the stem cell ECR community.