News
Latest news from the group
Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship
Added 8 May, 2012We have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship to support a student working on the project "Using a 3D culture system to monitor the astrocyte response to potential stem cell therapies for CNS damage". This will take place in the summer of 2012 and will complement other ongoing project to use our nervous system model technologies to inform our CNS repair strategies.
New Paper: 3D culture system models inhibitory interfaces in the damaged nervous system
Added 16 February, 2012Our new Tissue Engineering paper "Engineering an integrated cellular interface in 3-dimensional hydrogel cultures permits monitoring of reciprocal astrocyte and neuronal responses" describes a novel cell culture system that recreates key cellular features of the injured spinal cord. Following CNS trauma, astrocytes become reactive and a microenvironment develops that inhibits neuronal regeneration. Our new model mimics that process by arranging astrocytes and neurons in adjacent parts of an integrated 3D matrix. The astrocytes become reactive and form an inhibitory interface through which the neurons are unable to penetrate, simulating the cellular interactions that occur in damaged CNS tissue. This highly reproducible approach allows us to monitor both cell types continuously and we can carefully control variables to allow specific hypotheses to be tested without the additional complexity present in an animal model. This new platform technology will be useful in basic neuroscience research as well as in the development of new therapies.
PhD Success
Added 6 January, 2012Congratulations to Sarah Mason who successfully passed her PhD viva examination on 21st December. Sarah's PhD Thesis title is "Examining the relationship between ultrastructural features and tensile properties in joint and non joint regions of peripheral nerve" and her project revealed new information about peripheral nerve biomechanics and anatomy.
New research project involving industrial collaboration
Added 27 October, 2011The group has started an exciting new project in collaboration with TAP Biosystems to develop advanced CNS tissue models for neuroscience research. The project will run for 3 years from October 2011 and will involve close collaboration between scientists and engineers to develop viable production technology to generate advanced culture systems for research and development. For more details visit the Projects page.