News
Latest news from the group
Nerve repair research wins international prize
Added 11 September, 2012
Melanie Georgiou won first prize for her presentation at the Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) World Congress in Vienna. Melanie's abstract was shortlisted for the prestigious Oral Presentation Award Session, during which the five finalists presented their work to an expert panel, who then led a question and answer session in front of a large audience. Melanie was awarded first prize for discussing interim findings from her work using stem cells from adipose tissue as part of the project to develop tissue engineered implantable devices for surgical repair of the peripheral nervous system.
The TERMIS World Congress involved more than 2500 delegates from 62 nations. Our group presented three posters in addition to Melanie's talk, describing the latest findings from our ongoing projects. Abstracts are available via Open Research Online.
New international collaboration to study microglia in 3D culture
Added 9 September, 2012We are involved in a new project entitled 'Remodelling microglia in vitro in a 3D collagen construct' in collaboration with Dr Sharmili Vidyadaran at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The PhD student working on the project in Dr Vidyadaran's lab is Tong Chih Kong and financial support has been provided by the Research University Grant Scheme, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
International Conference on Stem Cell Engineering: Travel Award
Added 29 August, 2012Melanie Georgiou received a travel award from the Society for Biological Engineering and the International Society for Stem Cell Research to attend the 3rd International Conference on Stem Cell Engineering in Seattle, US. The theme of the meeting was 'Designing Cellular Therapies' and the programme and abstracts are available here.
New Paper: Using a 3D culture model to understand the effect of PDT on neurons
Added 11 July, 2012Our paper "Inhibition of specific cellular antioxidant pathways increases the sensitivity of neurons to meta-tetrahydroxyphenyl chlorin-mediated photodynamic therapy in a 3D co-culture model" reveals new information about how neurons can survive photodynamic therapy (PDT) cancer treatments. By using a co-culture system that maintained neurons and glial cells in a 3D environment we were able to identify a potential mechanism for the neuronal sparing we reported previously (2009 publication in the British Journal of Cancer) . Understanding the response of neurons to PDT is important for the treatment of tumours within or adjacent to the nervous system and this ongoing project in collaboration with the National Medical Laser Centre is an example of how our nervous system culture models can be used to address clinically relevant questions.