Due to the current Covid-19 situation we had to re-organize our workshops from face-to-face to a virtual version, however, both of them were well organized, very informative, interactive, and over all a great success.
The fifth workshop on “Organotypic models and advanced imaging tools to dissect the biology of human bone metastasis” on November 25 was organized by Alexander Schaeffer and Hind Medyouf from Frankfurt University. The participants got essential insights into bone preparation and high-resolution imaging techniques of bone metastatic lesions. Furthermore, they introduced the attendees to a recently established fully human 2D and 3D organotypic niche model that contains essential constituents of the bone marrow niche. The mix between presentations and videos widened the understanding of current bone metastasis models, was attractive and initiated fruitful discussions. Thanks to Alexander Schaeffer and Hind Medyouf for organizing the workshop, which enhanced the knowledge and skills of the participants on new modelling and imaging strategies to dissect the biology of bone metastatic disease.
Our sixth workshop on “Animal models of bone metastases” on 4th of November was organized by the Dresden researchers Martina Rauner and Andy Göbel and focused on models of prostate as well as breast cancer metastasis and summarized current imaging methods for bone metastasis. The course allowed young researchers to get familiar with preclinical models for bone metastasis research and to interact with experts on the field such as Anna Dubrovska, Hanna Taipaleenmäki, Ben Wielockx, and Martina Rauner. Thanks to all the speakers for their excellent talks and the inspiring atmosphere.
Finally, Sylvia and Andy organized a special meeting for all PhD students of the µBone family on December 10. All were asked to give 3 minutes elevator pitch talk about their project as well as feedback to each other on what they liked and learned about from the individual performances. This was followed by very intense and interactive discussions after each talk. This online seminar was also the first experience for Andy as a seminar chair and he expressed his enthusiasm at the end with the words of the wonderful Jane Fonda: “Congratulations, you should feel good about yourself: You’ve done a great job!”
With that we want to close our µBone blog 2020 and thank you for the interesting blog contributions during this challenging times!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!
[Foto: Sophie Pählig]
