Virtual lectures of the StN Spotlight Series successful again in 2021

In mid-May 2021, the StN Spotlight Series started into its second year. The sixteen spotlight talks, amongst others from Prof. Dr. Gesine Kögler (University Hospital Düsseldorf), PD Dr. Thorsten Müller (Ruhr University Bochum) or Dr. Anika Neureiter (University Hospital RWTH Aachen) were received very well and ensued lively discussions between participants from the different fields of expertise. In addition to the contributions from the biomedical field, the ethical, legal and sociological aspects of stem cell research were also addressed with a Research Spotlight by Dr. Alexander Christian (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) entitled "Obstacles in debating ethics of human embryonic stem cell research" for the first time this year. The talk was met with just as much interest from biomedical scientists as from participants from the fields of philosophy, theology, law and social sciences. Further Spotlight talks from the ELSA area are planned for 2022.

There was also another contribution from the popular "Spotlight: External Speakers" category in 2021. Dr. Boris Greber from RheinCell Therapeutics, a biotech startup from Langenfeld founded in late 2017, talked about "GMP-compliant iPS cells and differentiation work flows for cell therapy". In the coming year, the "StN Spotlight: External Speakers" section will once again provide a platform for exchange with guest scientists or invited speakers from outside the network.

Another highlight among this year's talks was the Research Spotlight entitled "Forebrain brain organoids assembling functionally integrated bilateral eye primordia" in which Prof. Jay Gopalakrishnan presented the recently published results of a collaboration from several scientists from the Stem Cell Network.NRW.

With more than 50 participants and a lively discussion afterwards, the Research Spotlight by Prof. Dr. Volker Busskamp (University Hospital Bonn) on December 2 was a great conclusion for the second year of the lecture series.

Due to the great response and positive feedback, the series will resume after a short winter break in mid-January 2022. Every interested stem cell scientist is welcome to join! The registration link (participation is for free!) and a short abstract of the respective spotlight talk will be provided by email in the week before the event.

Feel free to contact us, if you are interested to present exciting research findings, your new paper or to give insights into the work of your institute. The team of the coordination office is happy to receive contributions (info[at]stammzellen.nrw.de ).

Further information about the Spotlight Series is provided on our website.