Attendence from over 3,800 delegates, around 140 speakers, and 1,500 posters on display over four days, in the wonderful city of Toronto:  the 9th Annual Meeting of the International Society For Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) was always going to be a great conference, and we certainly weren’t disappointed.

The quality of the research presented was high, and there were far too many talks to easily summarise in one article, so I’ve decided to split up my report into four parts, one for each day. In each, I’ve summarised the talks I saw from that day, and written a bit more about two or three of my favourite talks, from the big names in the field to some of the lesser-known (but equally engaging) researchers. If you’ve anything you’d like to add, please feel free to comment at the bottom of any of the articles.

Day 1 – Wednesday 15th June

Attracted by the promise of an interesting set of talks at the interface of academia and industry (not to mention a free breakfast!), to start off my conference I headed along to the Lonza-sponsored symposium entitled “Novel Stem Cell Tools – applications in Research, Drug Discovery, and Cell Therapy”.

Linzhao Cheng, from John Hopkins University in Baltimore, discussed his group’s work generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from blood cells. Using a plasmid delivered by electroporation, they have found that mononuclear CD34+ cells from the peripheral blood are more ammenable to reprogramming than the traditional fibroblast (increasing speed and efficiency of iPSC generation), as well as being a more easily accessable source of human cells. He also discussed work involving zinc finger nuclease-mediated gene targetting to correct Chronic Granulomatous Disease, which was used to insert a functional copy of the gene gp91 into a ‘safe harbour locus’ AAVS1.

We also heard talks concerning the derivation of neurones from pluripotent stem cells: from Xianmin Zeng (Buck Institute, California) about promising work in the generation of dopaminergic neurons from hPSCs for cell therapy and drug screening to treat Parkinson’s Disease, and from Alexa Poole of California Stem Cell Inc. about their new products involved motor neuron progenitor cells from in-house derived xeno-free cGMP-grade hESCs.

After the break, I headed over to a packed seminar room to see the Symposium to honor Ernest ‘Bun’ McCulloch, whose work developing Colony Forming Unit (CFU) assays paved the way for further functional assays to test stem cell pluripotency. Talking were Valerie Wallace (Ottawa Hospital Research Institute) about her work concerning the role of Hedgehog signalling in the development of the neural retina, Mickie Bhatia (McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute) discussing heterogeneity amongst hESCs and it’s implications, and Bing Lim (Genome Institute of Singapore and Harvard Medical School) giving a fresh perspective on pluripotency factors as factors essential for differentiation.

The conference proper began with the Presidential Symposium, chaired by exiting ISSCR President Elaine Fuchs. After an address Robert McEwan from McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine, and a presentation of the ISSCR Public Service Award to  Robert Klein (Chairman of Independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee at CIRM), four speakers were invited to give a talk from a historical perspective of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. Firstly, Janet Rossant from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto gave lecture on the importance and limitations of functional assays for pluripotency. George Daley from Children’s Hospital Boston gave his historical account of the origins of stem cell research, nuclear transfer, reprogramming, and cell therapy.

This year’s Keynote Lecture was delivered by Robert Langer from MIT. Author on over 1,100 papers and holder of over 760 patents, he gave a certainly non-exhaustive (but nonetheless exhausting!) whistlestop tour of his lab’s research, focussed on the development of materials designed to improve cell and gene therapy and solve particular problems in surgery. For example, a thermoresponsive material, changing its properties when going from room temperature to body temperature, had been developed for use in minimally invasive surgery, resulting in a thread which when knotted would tighten itself – amazing to watch on video! In addition, by dropping tiny quantities of polymers onto a microscope slide, a polymer microarray was developed, allowing for high-throughput screening of polymers which would support feeder-free growth of human hESCs. Similar screening methods were used to find chemicals that increase the efficiency of gene delivery into hESCs.

Finally, to round up the Presidential Symposium, former ISSCR president Irving Weissman (Stanford) gave a deliberately confrontational yet entertaining speech concerning who is to blame for the rise of unregulated stem cell treatments – in short, part of the blame was from scientists who over-hyped their work, giving stem cell status to cells that aren’t, and claiming major advances without appropriate function assays. His talk also included an assessment of the ISSCR public information program ‘A Closer Look at Stem Cell Treatments’.

The first plenary session of the conference – “Totipotency and Germline Development “ was the last session of the day, and I managed to catch a talk by Azim Surani (Gurdon Institute, Cambridge) on the role of epigenetic reprogramming in germ cell lineage, and Max Plank Institute’s Hans Schoeler‘s talk comparing the induction of pluripotency in somatic cells with that in germ line cells.

The conference had gotten off to a fine start, but I knew once the concurrent sessions started it’d only get more frantic! Follow this link to see the second part of my report..

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Last May the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Oeiras, Portugal) hosted the EMBO Workshop on Biophysical Mechanisms of Development (EMBO BMD 2011). As one of the organizers my main mission was to put together a Science and Art contest and exhibition, related with the workshop theme, which we entitled “The Physics of Life”. We were particularly interested in work reflecting the topic of the workshop but we also accepted images related with the broader area of Biophysics or “The Physics of Life”.

The exhibition was aimed at highlighting not only the beauty and art that can be found in research images, but also the artists translations of a scientific theme. Thus, both scientists and artists were invited to apply.

We received a total of 52 images from scientists and artists from six different countries (Portugal, Spain, UK, Holland, Brazil and USA), including renowned science artists like Rob Kesseler and Andrew Carnie.

The submitted images were available for online voting at the workshop Facebook page, and the 20 images with the highest number of votes (or “likes”) were selected for display at “The Physics of Life” exhibition.

Picture types ranged from digital compositions, paintings, graphic art, macro- and microphotographs, and featured several different organisms, such as fungi, animal cells, embryos, flowers and trees. You can see the submitted images in the Facebook photo album “SciArt images in contest” and the selected ones in “The Physics of Life” exhibition.

The 20 selected images were printed and exhibited during the EMBO BMD 2011 workshop, and they remain on display at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

The winner of the contest, elected by a jury composed of members of the Organizing and Scientific Committees of the workshop, was Elsa Abranches, a post-doctoral researcher working in neural differentiation at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (Lisbon, Portugal), with the image “The Heart of a Brain“.

At the end of the workshop, we received very positive feedback on the exhibition. If you are planning on organizing such an event, I can tell you that it is very rewarding, specially thanks to all the beautiful images we received. For details on organization layouts, check our SciArt exhibition webpage here.

(8 votes)

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Sperm stem cells have a lot riding on their success.  Not only must they produce the actual sperm, but they must maintain a life-long supply.  So, the self-renewal of spermatogonial stem cells is a finely-tuned talent of these stem cells.  A recent paper in the Journal of Cell Science describes the role of Wnt signaling in spermatogonial stem cell maintenance.

Stem cells possess two key properties that make them so special – the ability to produce different types of specialized cells, and the ability for self-renewal.  As spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) must provide a life-long supply of sperm, their self-renewal is very important.  Recently, a group looked at SSC maintenance and found a role for Wnt signaling in the process.  Yeh and colleagues used clusters of SSCs in vitro to show that Wnt5a promotes the maintenance of SSCs as a cell-extrinsic factor, and functions independently of B-catenin signaling.  Although Wnt5a does work independently of B-catenin in many diverse examples, this paper is the first to show this non-canonical pathway functioning in stem cell maintenance.  Yeh and colleagues also found that Wnt5a is expressed in vivo in cells of the testes in newborn mice.  Finally, SSC clusters expressed the Wnt5a receptors Fzd5, Fzd7 and Ror2.  In the images above, Wnt5a gene expression (red) is found in Sertoli cells (green), which serve as “nurse” cells in the testes.

For a more general description of this image, see my imaging blog within EuroStemCell, the European stem cell portal.

Yeh JR, Zhang X, & Nagano MC (2011). Wnt5a is a cell-extrinsic factor that supports self-renewal of mouse spermatogonial stem cells. Journal of cell science, 124 (Pt 14), 2357-66 PMID: 21693582

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We’d like to draw your attention to one of the current job postings, even if you don’t normally look at the job ads page.

After 8 very successful years with Development, Dr. Jane Alfred has decided to leave her position as Executive Editor. If you have editorial experience and are looking for a challenging role on a prestigious journal this position may be of interest to you.

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(Based in Cambridge, UK)

After 8 very successful years with Development, Dr. Jane Alfred has decided to leave her position as Executive Editor. If you have editorial experience and are looking for a challenging role on a prestigious journal this position may be of interest to you.

Applications are sought for the role of Executive Editor for Development, our flagship journal serving the developmental biology community.

Joining an experienced and successful team, including Academic Editor-in-Chief Olivier Pourquie, this is an exciting opportunity for a talented scientific editor to make a significant contribution to one of the major journals in the field. Development publishes primary research articles, reviews and topical comment, and reaches out to the wider community through its innovative blog, the Node.

Applicants will have a broad knowledge of developmental biology and stem cells, significant editorial experience and will ideally have already held an influential editorial role.

Core responsibilities include:
• Editorial management of the journal in collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief
• Working with the full team of academic editors on journal initiatives
• Management of in-house editorial and administrative teams
• Commissioning, handling peer review and developmental editing of material for the front section of the journal
• Training and support of editorial staff working on the front section
• Overseeing manuscript submission and dealing with any ethical issues that arise during the handling of primary research papers by the academic editors
• Editorial management of the Node
• Representation of the journal at international conferences and within the wider scientific community
• Creative involvement with marketing activities

Essential requirements for the job are a broad knowledge of and interest in science and the scientific community, willingness to travel, enthusiasm, commitment and excellent interpersonal skills.

This is a senior position, with an attractive salary and benefits, and represents a unique career opportunity on a prominent and highly successful journal.

The Company of Biologists (www.biologists.com) is a not-for-profit organisation, publishing four distinguished journals in the biological sciences: Development, Disease Models & Mechanisms, Journal of Cell Science and The Journal of Experimental Biology – and a new journal, Biology Open, will be launching in Autumn 2011. The organisation has an active programme of charitable giving for the further advancement of biological research, including travelling fellowships for junior scientists, contributions to academic societies and conferences, and the company runs a series of exclusive scientific workshops.

Applicants should send a CV by email to miriam@thecob.co.uk along with a covering letter that states their salary expectations and summarises their relevant experience and why they are enthusiastic about this opportunity.

Applications should be made as soon as possible and by 29th July.

(1 votes)

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The massive cow femur I keep on a shelf right in front of me in my office clearly demonstrates that the shaft of a long bone is anything but a straight, smooth, symmetric tube. It is unevenly flattened and covered with ridges and grooves, bulges and depressions. This extremely intricate topography matches perfectly with adjacent organs and tissues, tendons and joints, thereby enabling the musculoskeletal system to perform its vital functions. Oddly enough, the mechanisms that sculpt the unique and elaborate surface of each bone have been largely overlooked by the study of bone development.

My lab has studied musculoskeletal development for quite a few years, focusing on aspects such as the contribution of muscle contraction to joint formation (Kahn et al., 2009) and the involvement of tendons and muscles in the development of bone protrusions (Blitz et al., 2009). Fascinated by the morphogenetic riddle of the circumferential shape of bones, I have assembled a multidisciplinary team of scientists and students to tackle it. I first approached Prof. Ron Shahar from the Hebrew University, a scientist, veterinarian and engineer, who is an expert in bone orthopedics and mechanobiology. Together, we brought in the then Ph.D. student Amnon Sharir, also a vet, who took upon himself to integrate the developmental and biomechanical aspects of the work. I also recruited specifically for this project Tomer Stern, then an M.Sc. student with a background in mathematics and informatics.

We began by developing scanning protocols and data processing algorithms for the analysis of bone development using micro-CT images. Soon enough, we discovered that the minute dimensions of embryonic mouse bones at the onset of ossification, the low and varying mineral levels and the complex and diverse morphology all presented major obstacles to our efforts. When we finally obtained the first lucid images of how a long bone is formed, our frustration turned into excitement. We could clearly see how a ring of mineral is formed around the developing cortex, followed by construction of perpendicular struts on which the next layer of mineral is laid. The bone shaft gradually became wider and the cortex thicker, until the latter was eroded from within to reach its final thickness.

A prominent and fascinating observation was that this process turned the circumference of the bone shaft from an almost perfect circle in the cartilage anlage, to the typical uneven outline of each fully ossified bone. Using a technique we had designed to visualize and quantify three-dimensional bone features by two-dimensional color maps, we realized that this shaping process involved nonuniform distribution of mineral deposition. We therefore termed this developmental program preferential periosteal growth.

Our next challenge was to uncover the regulatory mechanisms that underlie this morphogenetic process. Using muscular dysgenesis (mdg) mice, which lack muscle contractility, we showed that muscle-induced force is required for the mineralization patterns observed in wild type embryos and for the emergence of the resulting circumferential shape. Mechanical testing revealed that the properly shaped wild type bones had a larger load-bearing capacity. Finally, analysis of the distribution of osteoblasts showed that in bones that experience muscle loads, differential distribution of these bone-forming cells is responsible for preferential bone growth.

Our study expands the prevailing model of bone development by incorporating the contribution of periosteal bone formation, under regulation of muscle forces, to the shaping of the specific three-dimensional design of each long bone. Further study is required to uncover the entire molecular and cellular regulatory pathway that transduces mechanical signals into specific patterns of mineral deposition and bone formation.

Amnon Sharir, Tomer Stern, Chagai Rot, Ron Shahar, & Elazar Zelzer (2011). Muscle force regulates bone shaping for optimal load-bearing capacity during embryogenesis Development, 138 (15), 3247-3259 : 10.1242/dev.063768

Kahn, J., Shwartz, Y., Blitz, E., Krief, S., Sharir, A., Breitel, D., Rattenbach, R., Relaix, F., Maire, P., & Rountree, R. (2009). Muscle Contraction Is Necessary to Maintain Joint Progenitor Cell Fate Developmental Cell, 16 (5), 734-743 DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2009.04.013

Blitz E, Viukov S, Sharir A, Shwartz Y, Galloway JL, Pryce BA, Johnson RL, Tabin CJ, Schweitzer R, & Zelzer E (2009). Bone ridge patterning during musculoskeletal assembly is mediated through SCX regulation of Bmp4 at the tendon-skeleton junction. Developmental cell, 17 (6), 861-73 PMID: 20059955

(1 votes)

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Here are the research highlights from the current issue of Development:

BMP signalling rolls up in the neural tube

During neurulation, polarised cell-shape changes at hinge points – specialised regions of the neural plate – help convert the neural plate into a tube. But how are these cell-shape changes regulated? To answer this question, Seema Agarwala and co-workers have been studying neural tube closure in the chick midbrain (see p. 3179). They identify a cell cycle-dependent bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) activity gradient in the anterior neural plate and show that it is required for ventral midline hinge point formation and neural tube closure. BMP signalling, they report, regulates the polarised cell behaviours associated with neural tube closure by modulating epithelial apicobasal polarity in tandem with the cell cycle. Because cell-cycle progression in the neural plate is asynchronous, BMP-mediated polarity modulation induces shape changes in only some neural plate cells, whereas their neighbours retain apicobasal polarity. This mosaic and dynamic modulation of polarity, the researchers propose, provides the neural plate with the flexibility to allow folding while retaining its epithelial integrity.

Tetraspanin-like protein regulates islet cell differentiation

The pancreas is a complex organ that contains ductal, exocrine and endocrine tissues. Here (p. 3213), Kristin Artinger, Lori Sussel and co-workers identify a role for Tm4sf4, a tetraspanin-like protein, during pancreatic endocrine differentiation. Tm4sf4 expression in mice is downregulated by the transcription factor Nkx2.2, which is known to be essential for islet cell differentiation. The researchers show that, in mice, Tm4sf4 is expressed in the pancreatic ductal epithelial compartment and is abundant in islet progenitor cells. Pancreatic tm4sf4 expression and its regulation by Nkx2.2 is conserved in zebrafish, and loss-of-function studies in zebrafish reveal that, in contrast to Nkx2.2, tm4sf4 inhibits α and β cell specification but promotes ε cell fate. Finally, in vitro experiments indicate that Tm4sf4 inhibits Rho-activated cell migration. The researchers propose that the primary role of Nkx2.2 during pancreatic development is to inhibit Tm4sf4 in endocrine progenitor cells, thereby allowing their delamination, migration and differentiation. Targeting Tm4sf4 could, therefore, provide a way to activate quiescent pancreas progenitors for the treatment of diabetes.

Feel the force: embryonic bone shaping

The vertebrate skeleton contains more than 200 bones, each with its own unique shape, size and function. Postnatally, bones remodel in response to the muscle forces they encounter. So bed rest, for example, causes bone thinning. Now, on p. 3247, Amnon Sharir, Elazar Zelzer and colleagues report that muscle force also regulates bone shaping during embryogenesis in mice. Using micro-computed tomography scans of embryonic long bones, the researchers identify a novel developmental programme that, through asymmetric mineral deposition and transient cortical thickening, regulates the specific circumferential shape of each bone. This programme of preferential bone growth, they report, ensures that each bone acquires an optimal load-bearing capacity. Moreover, the programme is regulated by intrauterine muscle contractions; in a mouse strain that lacks such contractions, the bones lose their stereotypical circumferential outline and are mechanically inferior. Thus, the researchers suggest, a reciprocal relationship between structure and mechanical load in utero determines the 3D morphology of developing bones.

Endoderm specification in sea urchins

In sea urchin embryos, endomesoderm specification involves β-catenin entry into the nuclei of the vegetal cells of the developing embryo. Now, on p. 3297, David McClay and colleagues reveal how the embryo uses maternal information to initiate this specification by showing that maternal Wnt6 is necessary for activation of endodermal genes. They report that the addition of Wnt6 or ectopic activation of the Wnt pathway rescues endoderm specification in eggs that lack the small region of the vegetal cortex that is normally needed for the activation of the endomesoderm gene regulatory network. This part of the vegetal cortex, they report, contains a high level of Dishevelled (Dsh), a transducer of the canonical Wnt pathway. They also report that morpholino knockdown of Wnt6 in the whole embryos of two sea urchin species prevents endoderm specification but not the expression of mesoderm markers. The researchers suggest, therefore, that maternal Wnt6 plus a localised vegetal cortex molecule, possibly Dsh, are necessary for endoderm specification in sea urchin embryos.

Gata-way to a cardiac progenitor fate

During gastrulation, cardiovascular progenitor cells (CPCs) migrate to the future heart-forming region of the embryo, where they produce the major cardiac lineages. But what regulates CPC fate and behaviour? On p. 3113, Ian Scott and colleagues report that Smarcd3b (Swi/Snf-related matrix-associated actin-dependent regulator of chromatin subfamily d member 3b) and the transcription factor Gata5 can induce a CPC-like state in zebrafish embryos. In mice, SMARCD3, GATA4 and TBX5 form a cardiac BAF (cBAF) chromatin remodelling complex that promotes myocardial differentiation in the embryonic mesoderm. The researchers now show that smarcd3b and gata5 overexpression in zebrafish embryos leads to the formation of an enlarged heart, whereas combined loss of smarcd3b, gata5 and tbx5 inhibits cardiac differentiation. Most notably, transplantation experiments show that cells overexpressing cBAF components migrate to the developing heart and differentiate into cardiac cells, even if initially placed in non-cardiogenic regions of the embryo. These results show that cBAF has a conserved role in cardiac differentiation and can promote a CPC-like state in vivo.

Aired out: FGF9 in lung development

During lung development, the secreted signalling molecule fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) is expressed in both the mesothelium (the single layer of cells that envelopes the lungs) and the pulmonary epithelium (which gives rise to the proximal airways and terminal epithelial buds). Mesenchymal proliferation and epithelial branching are both reduced in Fgf9^–/– embryos, which die at birth because of impaired lung development. Intriguingly, David Ornitz and colleagues now show that mesothelial- and epithelial-derived FGF9 have distinct functions during lung development in mouse (see p. 3169). Mesothelial-derived FGF9 and mesenchymal WNT2A, they report, are required to maintain the mesenchymal FGF-WNT/β-catenin signalling pathway that is responsible for mesenchymal growth. By contrast, epithelial-derived FGF9 primarily affects epithelial branching, probably through regulation of BMP4 signalling. The researchers also show that epithelial and mesothelial FGF9 and mesenchymal β-catenin suppress the expression of the BMP4 antagonist Noggin in lung mesenchyme, thereby providing a mechanism for coupling mesenchymal and epithelial proliferation during lung development.

Plus…

In cycling tissues, stem cells coordinate tissue maintenance and repair. Here, Klein and Simons review the results of recent lineage-tracing studies and challenge the concept of the stem cell as an immortal, slow-cycling, asymmetrically dividing cell.
See the Hypothesis article on p. 3103.

The tenth annual Keystone Symposium on the Mechanism and Biology of Silencing convened in Monterey, California, in March 2011. Olivia Rissland and Eric Lai summarize the results presented at the meeting, which inspire and push this expanding field into new territories.
See the Meeting Review on p. 3093

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This is my personal report on the second of three laboratory projects which I have undertaken during the rotation year of my 4-year Wellcome Trust PhD. I studied how yeast come in more shapes and sizes than you might have imagined.

How do cells know which way is up? This is one of the most fundamental and important questions in biology. Almost every living cell has some degree of polarity, it has a front and a back or a top and a bottom, and they are very different from each other. In my second lab rotation I have been investigating how cells establish and maintain polarity, these distinct domains which do different things.

I have been working with a simple polarity model, the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which is not the same as the yeast you’d use to make bread. This yeast forms rod-shaped cells with growth zones at both ends that are very different from the sides of the cells, which don’t grow (Sawin and Tran, 2006). Yeast have cell walls, much like plants, and growth requires weakening of the cell wall and delivery of new components for cell expansion. This is dependent upon growth promoters, called polarity factors, such as the Tea complex in this yeast (Le Goff et al., 2006).

The delivery of polarity factors to the cell ends depends on the microtubule cytoskeleton, an array of protein polymers that exist in cells and provides transport routes for the controlled delivery of cell components to specific locations. My project has focused on the organisation of the microtubule cytoskeleton itself.

Microtubule polymers in S. pombe form bundles. Bundling is effected by two types of protein in the cell, one that actively slides fibres past each other (a ‘motor’ protein) and another that keeps microtubules attached to one another (Carazo-Salas, 2005). Previous experiments suggested that for the motor to organise microtubules in cells it concentrates at the outer ends of microtubules. However, how it gets there remained until now obscure. Using genetic techniques we were able to identify the protein that likely targets the motor protein to microtubule ends. Our finding is in agreement with work from a separate group of researchers who recently presented data at the 2011 British Yeast Group meeting.
Screening image

An example of an automatically captured image used to find strains with unusual cell shapes (grey regions) or microtubule organisation (white lines)

The lab has also begun systematically looking for genes which, when removed from the genome, affect the organization of the microtubule cytoskeleton or cellular shape and polarity. The regular rod shape of this yeast allows one to easily identify mutants that have altered morphology – in the past several well-known shape variants have been identified including bent, orb and T-shaped mutants (Hayles and Nurse, 2001). We have a collection of yeasts, each missing one gene from the genome, and have been systematically filming all of them using an automated microscope to see which ones have altered microtubules or cell polarity. This is something we’ve only just started and there is a lot of analysis to do with so many images – we are looking at over 3000 different strains – so there aren’t any exciting results yet. However, there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding cell polarity, and we are hopeful that our findings will help to address them.

What I have really enjoyed about working on this project is the involvement of computing in the work, because of how much data there is to analyse. I have been able to make useful contributions to the work the lab is doing, in the short time I have worked with them, by using my small amount of programming experience to develop several really useful software tools. When studying so many similar strains there are a lot of repetitive tasks to perform, which I have been able to automate, hence making everyone’s lives easier and improving productivity.

This post, and others about my PhD are also available on the Wellcome Trust blog here, here and here. I also hope to get back to doing some personal blogging now that the academic year is drawing to a close, so look out for new stuff here. For more about science in Cambridge checkout the science magazine, BlueSci.

References
# Carazo-Salas RE, Antony C, & Nurse P (2005). The kinesin Klp2 mediates polarization of interphase microtubules in fission yeast. Science (New York, N.Y.), 309 (5732), 297-300 PMID: 16002618
# Hayles J, & Nurse P (2001). A journey into space. Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology, 2 (9), 647-56 PMID: 11533722
# La Carbona S, Le Goff C, & Le Goff X (2006). Fission yeast cytoskeletons and cell polarity factors: connecting at the cortex. Biology of the cell / under the auspices of the European Cell Biology Organization, 98 (11), 619-31 PMID: 17042740
# Sawin, K.E., & Tran, P.T. (2006). Cytoplasmic microtubule organization in fission yeast Yeast, 23 (13), 1001-1014 DOI: 10.1002/yea.1404

(3 votes)

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I am the founder and CEO of DataGiving. I founded DataGiving whilst completing my Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Cambridge. I have always been passionate about helping people. After completing my Bachelors degree in Psychology, I worked as an Assistant Psychologist at St Marys Hospital in London, helping adults with severe mental health disorders. Since I was a teenager I had aspired to become a Clinical Psychologist, but as much as I admired the great work Psychologists do, I didn’t feel that my desire to reach out and make a positive change would be fully achieved in this role. I returned to academia, as I had long been intrigued to learn more about the biological basis of human behaviour and cognition. I completed a Masters degree in Cognitive Neuroscience, at Imperial College London, which included a laboratory based research project at the Hammersmith Hospital, investigating the genetic basis of Parkinson’s Disease This research sparked my passion for genetics, and specifically the field of Epigenetics. I went on to be awarded an MRC scholarship, to undertake research into the imprinting regulation of Gsα in the laboratory of Dr Gavin Kelsey at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge.

Whilst at Cambridge, I was determined to fully participate in both academic and social life Cambridge University had to offer, and I served on my College graduate committee, was editor for the Graduate Union Bulletin, and was responsible for raising sponsorship for the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Society (CUE). At Cue, I learnt about what was required to develop successful businesses, and met fellow students interested in entrepreneurship. I also worked for a while for a biotech, identifying collaborative opportunities with research labs around the world.

I have long been an advocate of harnessing creative and innovative technologies, to facilitate change for the common good. After a period of teaching myself basic computer programming, myself and a team of fellow Cambridge graduates won the TedxCam 2010 Open Data Challenge Hackathon, with a web data mashup named Ventropy (www.ventropy.org). Described by the BBC as “jaw-dropping”, Ventropy impactfully communicates the needs of grassroots businesses in mainly developing countries looking to raise funding through the microfinance site Kiva. Ventropy received high-praise from leaders from both the technology/web and charity fields, and is featured in the Kiva app portal. I was invited to speak about the inspiring idea at The Guardian Activate 2010 Summit, Technology, society and the future: Changing the world through the internet.

I went on to be awarded an UnLtd HEFCE Social Entrepreneurship Catalyst Award to develop the idea of Ventropy into a data visualisation app that translates the charitable impact of any amount of money, this can be seen at www.datagiving.com.

I am passionate about inspiring social entrepreneurs, and earlier in the year I was invited to speak to students at Cambridge University interested in ethical careers at the Beyond Profit flagship event, ‘From dream to reality – funding and support for social enterprise’, alongside UnLtd CEO Cliff Prior. I was also invited back to The Guardian Activate Summit in 2011 to take part in a stimulating panel debate discussing the power of data to save the world.

My scientific training has equipped me with an analytical mindset and curiosity that I’m able to apply in wider contexts of innovation. I am still very much passionate about biological science and in encouraging innovation in this field. I recently came runner up in an Open Innovation competition organised by MedImmune and Cambridge University Technology Enterprise Club, and I have since been asked by MedImmune to develop an Open Innovation strategy for MedImmune and the University of Cambridge.

My career to date has taken unexpected and unconventional twists and turns, but I’ve enjoyed every moment. Keeping an open mind and carving out your niche can be hard work, but incredibly rewarding.

(7 votes)

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There’s an interesting interview in Nature News, with Abdelali Haoudi – the vice-president for research of the Qatar foundation. Qatar opened a biomedical research institute a few years ago, and is now looking to expand this with a stem cell institute.

The situation in Qatar is almost opposite of that of many other countries:  they have enough money to set up the institute, but not necessarily enough highly-skilled people to work there. They’ve sent six students abroad to learn about stem cells at top institutes, and expect them to come back to work in Qatar, but will they really all come back, or is this going to be a practical lesson in the risks of “brain drain”?

The interview also addresses the ethical aspects and Islamic views of stem cell research. The foundation organised a conference for Islamic scholars to determine the fatwa (official Islamic rules) concerning human embryonic stem cells, and they came up with a set of well-defined rules: “We can use tissues from embryos for up to 14 days after fertilization. We have to get the consent of the parents. We cannot create embryos specifically for research, and we cannot use the tissues for commercial purposes — only for basic research or to develop new therapies”, explains Haoudi.

Have a look at the entire interview.

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