Network-wide meetings
Previous network meetings.
Kick-off meeting
Our ITN-MIMIC First Annual Meeting was held in Leiden (the Netherlands) on 11– 12 May 2017.
The first day of the meeting featured coordinator report and presentation of training progress and dissemination activities within the network. A substantial amount of time was devoted for discussion about projects continuity as well as students supervision.
In addition, all MIMIC fellows presented their research projects as slideshows followed by questions and discussion.
The second day started with 1:1 meetings between fellows and local supervisors during secondments and the end of the meeting was preceded by tours through the facilities of MIMETAS and GALAPAGOS
Participants
- Henriëtte Lanz, MIMETAS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Dorota Kurek, MIMETAS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Richard Janssen, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Jan Stallen, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Kai Erdmann, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Agnieszka Skowronek, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Kinga Kosim, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Sindhu Naik, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Elena Naumovska, MIMETAS, Leiden, Netherlands
- Claudia Beaurivage, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
Fellows get-together meeting
For the first time, ITN-MIMIC fellows met together in Sheffield and York on 21st – 23rd November 2016 during the so called fellow get-together meeting.
Students invited two speakers, both young independent group leaders at University of Sheffield:
- Dr Natalia Bulgakova ("Function and regulation of E-cadherin sub-complexes")
- Dr Elena Rainero ("Extracellular matrix internalisation in breast cancer cell invasion and proliferation")
In addition, fellows prepared 20 minute talks and posters presenting their research projects.
At the very early stage of ITN-MIMIC fellows got a chance to create science network at the postgraduate level and MIMIC-related dissemination deliverables: MIMIC Logo as well as social media platforms promoting and disseminating their research to the general public:
Facebook: ITN-Mimic
Twitter account @ITN_MIMIC.
Annual meeting I
Our ITN-MIMIC First Annual Meeting was held in Leiden (the Netherlands) on 11th – 12th May 2017.
The first day of the meeting featured coordinator report and presentation of training progress and dissemination activities within the network. A substantial amount of time was devoted for discussion about projects continuity as well as students supervision.
In addition, all MIMIC fellows presented their research projects as slideshows followed by questions and discussion.
The second day started with 1:1 meetings between fellows and local supervisors during secondments and the end of the meeting was preceded by tours through the facilities of MIMETAS and GALAPAGOS.
Participants:
- Henriëtte Lanz, MIMETAS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Dorota Kurek, MIMETAS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Richard Janssen, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Jan Stallen, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Kai Erdmann, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Agnieszka Skowronek, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Kinga Kosim, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Sindhu Naik, BMS, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Elena Naumovska, MIMETAS, Leiden, Netherlands
- Claudia Beaurivage, GALAPAGOS, Leiden, The Netherlands
Annual meeting II
Our ITN-MIMIC Second Annual Meeting was held in Leiden (the Netherlands) on 3rd December 2018.
The meeting featured coordinator report and presentation of ESR training progress and dissemination activities within the network.
In addition, all MIMIC fellows presented their research projects as slideshows followed by questions and discussion.
Together with the fellows and supervisors the plans for the MIMIC summer school and the MIMIC final meeting were discussed and agreed on.
At the end of the meeting, fellows presented their business plan idea for the BioYES final competition in front of supervisors and other companies’ members who provided them valuable feedback regarding their presentation.
Annual meeting III
Our ITN-MIMIC Second Annual Meeting was held in Leiden (the Netherlands) on 26th August 2019.
This was the last network meeting where all supervisors and ITN fellows gathered together to discuss scientific outcomes, fellows’ performance and future activities until the end of the MIMIC project and beyond.
The meeting featured coordinator report and presentation of ESR training progress and dissemination activities within the network.
Dr Erdmann discussed with fellows and supervisors all remaining scientific and training deliverables and agreed the timescale for all of them to be submitted by the end of the 2019.
In addition, all MIMIC fellows presented their research projects as slideshows followed by questions and discussion.
They gave a great overview of all the work accomplished during their PhD time and all of them were seen as successful projects with a view for future publications and possible commercial outputs.
Final meeting
The final event that carried particular significance in both dissemination and in opening-up of MIMIC to the broad scientific community was the international conference ‘‘Organ-on-a-Chip & Tissue-on-a-Chip Europe 2019’’ between 18th and 19th June 2019 at the de Doelen Conference Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands organised by SelectBIO.
SelectBIO Organ-on-a-Chip & Tissue-on-a-Chip Europe 2019 focused on an important and expanding field of an organ-on-a-chip technology assembling organ fragments ex vivo which provide an exquisite means to reconstruct biological processes (both physiological and pathological).
Some of the talks focused on "disease-on-a-chip", cancer-on-a-chip and immune system-on-a-chip.
Due to the overlap of this topic with Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip technologies, the co-located concurrent parallel conference tracked focus on these topics thereby offering complete coverage of these related fields to the conference delegates.
During the conference ITN-MIMIC fellows also had a chance to present their research projects during poster sessions allowing them great networking opportunities with many key opinion leaders in organ-on-a-chip field from around the world.
Ahead of the conference, on 17th June 2019, ITN-MIMIC organised its Satellite Meeting with two senior scientists, Dr Kai Erdmann (University of Sheffield), Dr Dorota Kurek (MIMETAS), external speaker Dr Meike van dr Zande (RIKILT - Institute of Food Safety/Wageningen UR) and three MIMIC fellows presenting the main outcomes of their research projects focusing on organ-on-a-chip (program attached).
Satellite Meeting was free and open to all SelectBIO conference delegates, speakers and exhibitors and offers an excellent opportunity for scientific exchange and networking.
Download programme and abstract (PDF, 7.17MB)
ITN-MIMIC School
9th April 2019.
Organs on chips are a new exciting possibility to more closely mimic human organ functionality in vitro than conventional 2D or 3D cell cultures.
Organs on chips allow both, the emulation of healthy organs as well as the emulation of specific disease conditions using corresponding engineered or patient-derived human cells.
Moreover, organs on chips are ideally suited for high-throughput drug screening.
The aim of the school "Mimicking organs on chips for high throughput drug screening and basic research" was to focus on how to engineer in vitro disease models suitable for organs on chips incorporation as well as development and improvement of different organs on chips models.
Speakers
- Dr Anika Nagelkerke, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
- Dr Maria Vias, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Dr Cecile Perrault, Eden Microfluidics, France/University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- Dr Charalampos Pitsalidis, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Professor Jo Spencer, King's College London, United Kingdom
Programme
ITN-MIMIC introduction – Network coordinator Dr Kai Erdmann
Talk 1:
Dr Anika Nagelkerke (University of Groningen), "Technologies for the Advance of Cancer Research"
Talk 2:
ITN-MIMIC fellows talks:
- Kinga Kosim(University of Sheffield): ''Establishment and Validation of an In Vitro Model for Crohn's Disease"
- Sindhu Naik (University of Sheffield): ''Establishment and Validation of an In-Vitro Model to Study Lowe Syndrome and Dent II Disease''
- Claudia Beaurivage (Galapagos): ''High Throughput Microfluidic Gut-on-a-Chip Model for Drug Discovery and Target Validation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease"
Talk 3:
Dr Cecile Perrault (Eden Microfluidics/University of Sheffield), ''Bringing Microfluidics and Organ-on-a-Chip through Commercialisation''
Watch the lecture:
Talk 4:
Dr Charalampos Pitsaladis (University of Cambridge) "3D Bioelectronic Devices for the Development of Next Generation Organs-on-Chips"
Talk 5:
Professor Jo Spencer (King’s College London) "Human Intestinal Lymphoid Tissue in Time and Space"
Watch the lecture:
Contact
Dr Agnieszka Skowronek, a.skowronek@sheffield.ac.uk, +44 114 222 2364