Stemcells@lunch Digested

This episode of Stem Cells @ Lunch Digested features Professor Buzz Baum from UCL. PhD student Sergi Junyent talks to him about his passion for cells and the process of their division, and the importance of answering biological questions with multidisciplinary tools and teams. For more information about his research follow this link: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lmcb/users/buzz-baum

For today’s special episode of SC@L, Vasi Salameti interviews fellow CSCRM PhD student Alice Vickers about her recent experience doing an industry placement as part of her PhD. Alice spent 6 months working as an analyst at M Ventures based in Amsterdam, the venture capital arm of Merck Industries. Hear all about what she got up to, how industry differs from academia, how VC’s assess pitches, and why the process from bench to drug production takes time... (All views expressed by Alice in this interview are her own and do not reflect those of M Ventures or Merck KGaA)

Today on SC@L digested, PhD student Sam Blackford speaks with Dr Oliver Pearce and his journey transitioning from chemistry to cancer immunotherapy. They discuss the role of the extracellular matrix in tumour development, what immunotherapy is and what techniques his lab are using to model cancer and explore potential therapeutic approaches... For more information about Dr Pearce's research follow this link:https://www.bartscancer.london/staff/dr-oliver-m-pearce/

For this weeks’ episode of SC@L digested, Dr Lea R’Bibo is joined by Dr Teresa Rayon from The Crick. They talk about what the neural tube is, and how stem cells can be used to study it. Dr Rayon also explains her interest in the difference in speed of embryonic development across different species, and why it is important to understand these processes. She also emphasises the benefit of working in different labs and cultures, and why it is so important to share your research with the public... For more information about Dr Rayon''s research follow this link: https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/find-a-researcher/teresa-rayon-alonso To listen to her podcast click here: https://sruk.org.uk/initiatives/public-engagement/en-fase-experimental/

EPISODE 90 For this week’s episode of Stem Cells @ Lunch Digested, PhD student Prudence Lui interviews Professor Julien Gautrot about his research into how cells interact with biomaterials, how has nature helped develop biomaterials, and what the best part of his job is. For more information on Prof. Gautrot’s work follow this link: https://www.sems.qmul.ac.uk/staff/research/j.gautrot

In today’s SC@L digested episode Dr Lea R’Bibo interviews Dr David Gershlick at the institute of medical research at Cambridge! His research area is protein trafficking – how cells organise themselves and how the parts inside a cell move around to help it function. They discuss applications and challenges of this research, and how he has found the transition from postdoc to PI... For more information on Dr Gershlick's research follow this link: https://www.cimr.cam.ac.uk/research/principal-investigators/gershlick

This week we are joined by Professor Jeremy Green from the Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology at King’s College London. He talks to PhD student Thea Willis about his career path, his group’s research looking at how cells physically form structures such as tissues, and what got him interested in the work he is doing. He also has a few tips for PhD students....

Oral Cancer Invasion... How does it happen? In today’s SC@L digested podcast, PhD student Inês Tomás talks to Dr Adrian Biddle, lecturer at the Blizard Institute, Queen Mary University of London, investigating the role of cancer stem cells in oral cancer. Together they talk about the differences between different types of cancer stem cells, finding a common problem in oral cancer to target as a treatment, different cancer model systems, and the potential future of cancer research.... For more information on Dr Adrian Biddle's work follow this link : https://www.qmul.ac.uk/blizard/staff/centre-for-cell-biology-and-cutaneous-research/staff/adrian-biddle.html

Today on SC@L digested PhD student Blaise Louis interviews Dr John Connelly from the Institute of Bioengineering from Queen Mary University of London. They talk about how he uses bioengineering tools and biomaterials to study the biology of how cells manage the process of homeostasis and the tissue maintains itself, and what happens when these processes are disrupted. They also talk about the future of biomaterials and how Dr Connelly is starting to use more complex 3D models of the skin for his research and what that means for understanding how whole tissues function. For more information about Dr Connelly's work follow this link: https://www.bioengineering.qmul.ac.uk/people/?j.connelly

For this episode of SC@L digested we are joined by Dr Mohi Ahmed, from the Craniofacial Development & Stem Cell Biology dept at King’s College London. He talks to PhD student Ieva Berzanskyte about what epigenetics is, how he is investigating hearing loss via epigenetic mechanisms, and how to develop potential treatments for this… For more information on his research please follow this link: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/mohi.1.ahmed.html

For today’s episode of SC@L digested, PhD student Jana Obajdin talks to Emma Milford, a PhD student at the Francis Crick Institute. They discuss her project investigating how cancer cells interact with their environment, including how they respond to different types of treatments… For more information about Emma follow this link: https://www.crick.ac.uk/research/find-a-researcher/emma-milford

In today’s SC@L episode, PhD student Dr Xinyi (Beibei) Du gets excited about single cell transciptomics with Malte Kühnemund, CEO and Co-Founder of Cartana. They discuss how he transitioned from PhD to developing his single cell spatial mapping technology, how it works, and whether he misses academia now that he’s a biotech CEO! For more info about Cartana follow this link: https://www.cartana.se

For this podcast episode , PhD student Daria Belhokvostova interviews Sergi Junyent about his current PhD project exploring how stem cells organise themselves during embryonic development, what signals cells exchange in this process, and what his experience of doing a PhD has been like!

For this episode of SC@L digested, PhD student Wladislaw Stroukov Interviews Dr Carrie Ambler from Durham University. They spoke about her work at the university looking at how cells make decisions, and what drugs or chemicals can be used to alter these choices. She also tells us about her spin off company LightOx that does interesting things with light to track and destroy cells..... For more information about her research follow this link: https://www.dur.ac.uk/biosciences/about/schoolstaff/profile/?id=5554

For this week’s episode, Dr Davide Danovi speaks with Dr Mike Delahaye, Lead Technical Scientist from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult based at Guy’s Hospital. Dr Delahay talks about what gene therapy and viral vectors are, his work trying to increase their efficiency, and his experience working at the Catapult the last 6 years…. Find out more about Mike Delahaye and Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult here: https://ct.catapult.org.uk/how-we-work/vacancies/our-people

For this episode of stem cells @ lunch digested, PhD student Vassia Salameti interviews Dr Pervinder Sagoo, Senior Scientist at Orchard Therapeutics - a biopharmaceutical company developing stem cell gene therapies for rare diseases. Dr Sagoo talks about how she got into this role, her career path that took her from academia to commercial science and what she thinks the future of gene therapies will be…

In this week’s episode of stem cells @ lunch digested, PhD Student Georgina Goss interviews Dr Leandro Ventimiglia, a Research Asociate at the KCL department of Infectious Diseases. He discusses his work looking at the mechanisms that control the morphology of the cell nucleus and what conditions arise when there are defects in this organelle, what imaging and microscopy techniques that he is using to visualise this, and what advice would he give to someone starting their career in research... School of Immunological and Microbial Sciences @kclimmuno @nikoncentre @nikon

Today’s episode of SC@L digested features Dr Heiko Wurdak, Lecturer at the University of Leeds, interviewed by PhD student Ieva Berzanskyte. Ieva asks how stem cells help him to model brain tumors in the lab and how his research could help develop future treatments for brain tumors… For more information on his research follow this link:https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/staff/905/dr-heiko-wurdak

Today’s episode of SC@L digested sees Public Engagement Officer Jessica Sells interview Dr Tamas Korcsmaros, Group Leader at both the Earlham & Quadram Insititutes. He talks about how he uses organoids to investigate how the microbiome influences our gut cells and health, the efficacy of superfood probiotics, and his involvement in outreach organisations such as the Hungarian and International Talent Support Programme. To find out more about Dr Korcsmaros work please follow this link:https://www.earlham.ac.uk/tamas-korcsmaros

In this episode of Stem Cells @ Lunch digested, PhD student Ella Hubber interviews Clinical Research Fellow Dr Xinyi (Beibei) Du. She talks about how her dermatology training led her to start research skin as part of the Human Cell Atlas using single cell RNA sequencing, the importance of involving patients in research, and the transition from working in the clinic to the lab…