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How BraYn 2022 used their Sustainable Conferencing Grant

7 November 2022

Sustainable notebook and pencil
The notebooks and pencils provided at the meeting were made from recycled materials.

The fifth Brainstorming Research Assembly for Young Neuroscientists (BraYn) took place in Rome from 28-30 September 2022. The conference aims to bring together early-career neuroscientists for the purposes of networking, sharing expertise and promoting collaborations.

Meet our Directors: Peter Rigby

 

30 September 2022

Peter Rigby is Professor Emeritus of Developmental Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, an organisation that he led from 1999 to 2011. Peter began his career as a biochemist, and completed his PhD with Brian Hartley in Cambridge, where he studied enzyme evolution. He then moved to Stanford to work with Paul Berg, focusing his postdoctoral research on SV40, a virus that can transform its host into a tumour cell. “It was clear to myself and my peers that it was time to stop working on E. coli and to start working on eukaryotic cells,” Peter said, “and the only way to get inside the workings of a eukaryotic cell was by using viruses.”

The Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School celebrates its tenth year

A group of summer school attendees posing for a group photo, with a backdrop of rolling hills.

26 September 2022

Romania’s Pike Lake is an important refuge for the wide variety of migratory birds that pass through it each year. This summer, it also played host to a community of neuroscientists who had gathered for the tenth edition of the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS). Running from 1-21 June 2022, the course was partly funded by one of our Scientific Meeting Grants.

A Travelling Fellowship unlocks a new technique

A 3D model of two cells imaged using FIB-SEM, with chromatin and a lagging chromosome highlighted.

19 August 2022

The risk of developing a subtype of leukaemia known as iAMP21-ALL is amplified in individuals that carry the translocated chromosome rob(15;21)c. Connor Gilkes-Imeson used a Travelling Fellowship from Journal of Cell Science to learn 3D correlative light electron microscopy (3D-CLEM), a technique that he plans to apply in his studies of the kinetochore attachments that form at this mutated chromosome.

Meet our Directors: Stephen Royle

10 August 2022

Steve Royle is based at the Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology, Warwick Medical School, where his team is investigating the molecular mechanisms that underpin two important cellular processes: membrane trafficking and mitosis. “We’re interested in the nuts and bolts of how these key processes work,” Steve explained.

Become a correspondent for our community sites

3 October 2022

Enthusiastic about science communication and looking for a chance to broaden your writing experience? The Node and FocalPlane are looking to appoint six correspondents who will volunteer to develop and write content for our community sites over the coming year.

A Travelling Fellowship to probe placental cell crosstalk

A lab group posing for a selfie with drinks. They are sitting outside a glass building around some tables.

28 September 2022

The placenta plays a crucial role in human development by supplying the foetus with oxygen and glucose whilst removing waste products. However, when signalling from the placenta goes awry, mothers are at risk of developing an inflammatory condition called preeclampsia. Monika Horvat Merčnik, a student on the international PhD programme ‘Inflammatory disorders in pregnancy’ (DP-iDP), used a Travelling Fellowship from Journal of Cell Science to explore the interactions between placental endothelial cells and resident macrophages in this condition.

Meet our Directors: Sally Lowell

22 August 2022

Sally Lowell is a developmental and stem cell biologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK. “My group is interested in how cells build embryos and tissues, and how we can control the behaviour of these cells in culture,” she explained. She is particularly interested in the local ‘conversations’ that cells have when communicating with their neighbours, and how these local interactions can affect their fate within the developing embryo. Sally’s lab is developing tools to ‘listen in’ on the communications between cells. They are also investigating how differences in cell adhesion and tissue morphology can affect this communication.

Towards a Mediterranean coral cell atlas

Anthony standing in front of a monastery built into the side of a mountain.

18 August 2022

Rising sea temperatures are having a devastating effect on tropical corals and, sadly, we have become used to seeing images of bleached and dying reefs on the news. However, the impacts on their Mediterranean counterparts have not received as much attention. A Travelling Fellowship helped fund PhD student Anthony Bonacolta’s trip across the Atlantic to Barcelona, where he was able to lay the foundations for the development of a Mediterranean coral cell atlas.

Workshop – Creative Science Writing

A group of people walking up the steps to a stately home

8 August 2022

We rounded off June with a slightly unusual Workshop, which aimed to nurture new voices in science writing. Organised by Buzz Baum, Enrico Coen, Mark Miodownik and Jennifer Rohn, the Workshop brought aspiring writers, established authors and agents together in the beautiful surroundings of Wiston House, Sussex.

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