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Drosophila imaginal discs

A Travelling Fellowship provides insights into adipogenesis

8 March 2023

The 14-3-3 protein family comprises a group of scaffold proteins implicated in metabolic processes. Using a Travelling Fellowship from Journal of Cell Science, Samanta Del Veliz visited Gareth Lim’s lab to investigate the role of these proteins in mesenchymal stem cell differentiation.

Rethinking sustainability at the Cambridge Neuroscience Seminar

6 December 2022

Conference delegates walking outsideThe 32nd Cambridge Neuroscience Seminar (CNS2022) was held on 29 September 2022 at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. This annual meeting brings together neuroscientists from across the University’s Departments to promote collaboration and strengthen the community. A Sustainable Conferencing Grant from The Company of Biologists helped the organisers to reduce the environmental impact of this year’s meeting.

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.

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.

Getting to grips with microphysiological systems at the India-EMBO Lecture Course

A group of meeting attendees looking up at the camera from the lawn outside the conference venue.

16 January 2023

Microphysiological systems (MPS), including organoids and organs-on-a-chip, have received growing attention in recent years. The first meeting in India to focus on this topic was held from 31 October – 4 November 2022, and was part of the India-EMBO Lecture Course series. The Company of Biologists was delighted to help support the meeting with funding that contributed to student accommodation waivers. The meeting brought together students and experts from across India and around the world, and included hands-on sessions to help participants really get to grips with MPS research.

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.

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.