25 Feb OrganoVIR at the 2020 Keystone Symposia in Vancouver
From January 19 – 23, 2020, the Keystone Symposia: Tissue Organoids as Models of Host Physiology and Pathophysiology of Diseases Conference, was held in Vancouver, Canada.
The meeting featured 4 days of talks and poster sessions around the utility of organoids in a wide range of applications. Key topics included host-pathogen interactions, metabolism, cancer research, injury models, organ-on-chip systems, matrices, and the incorporation of vasculature. This year, attendees also showed particular interest in expanding intestinal organoids into monolayer and air-liquid interface cultures to study host-pathogen interactions.
Our very own Dr. Dasja Pajkrt presented the work from her lab on the first day of the conference, entitled “Studies on Picornavirus Infection using Human Organoids”. During the conference, STEMCELL Technologies hosted an “Organoids: Food for Thought” lunch reception on Tuesday the 21st of January. Both Dasja and partner Juan Hou attended this lunch reception. This event provided plenty of opportunities to further extend the interaction and networking with researchers in the field.
Juan also invited Dasja to visit the STEMCELL Technologies headquarter. At STEMCELL, Dasja gave a great talk to over 30 Scientists and Research Associates working in Research & Development. She highlighted the unique features of the OrganoVIR grant that contains multiple components including business, education as well as research. Allen Eaves, the President and CEO of STEMCELL Technologies, attended Dasja’s talk and acknowledged the excellent collaboration between STEMCELL and OrganoVIR. After Dasja’s talk, relevant scientists and members of Juan’s team remained behind and had further discussion with Dasja.
It was a busy but fruitful week. Vancouver, as always, presented itself with typical rainy winter weather for the whole week, but this didn’t stop us from enjoying the science as well as the fun outside of the science!
Picture taken by STEMCELL Technologies.