“I loved the whole conference”: an interview with the winners of the AMSBIO ISSCR 2023 Travel Grant

Kerstin: I am in Dr Michael Hesse’s group investigating the BAG3P209L disease that manifests in muscle weakness, neurological deficits, respiratory failure, and heart failure. The goal is to gain a mechanistic understanding of BAG3-associated muscle diseases and to develop new experimental therapeutic approaches using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

I differentiate these iPSC lines into twitching skeletal muscle cells using the AMSBIO kit to examine the skeletal muscle phenotype of Bag3P209L patients, and further differentiate the iPSC into neuromuscular organoids to examine not only the pathological skeletal muscle phenotype but also the neuronal phenotype.

I want to find out what exactly leads to this disease, and find potential therapy approaches that will give patients a longer life. As I work mainly with iPSCs from living patients with the Bag3 mutation, I can also test therapy approaches directly on these patient-specific cells and eventually find a therapy approach specifically for the patient.

Miri: I am currently working in Dr Robert Zweigerdt’s lab on generating human pluripotent stem cell-derived complex organoids, which resemble embryological development of heart and hematopoietic systems. These two systems develop closely during embryogenesis, and having an in vitro model of their simultaneous development could be a powerful tool to better study interaction of these two systems for pharmaceutical drug screenings.

I love the freedom I have in planning my experiments and the variety of technologies I can use to investigate the generated organoids. We use a broad range of immune-fluorescence techniques as whole mount staining, immunohistochemistry on cryosections from frozen organoids and flow cytometry, as well as gene expression analysis as single cell-RNA sequencing.

Miri: I really liked the conference! It was impressive to see how many people attended, how many outstanding talks and sessions were organised and how many people contributed with beautiful posters. I sometimes found myself lost in this ocean of science, with overlapping sessions and complex topics, but in the end I managed to swim around.

Kerstin: Just how many important people in the field of stem cell research were there. I knew from the beginning that there were a lot of people who would be able to give me really helpful feedback and ideas for my work, and with whom I can connect for further projects.

Kerstin: That I was welcomed so nicely by the AMSBIO team. Also, meeting Rudolf Jaenisch, my mother’s old boss, who last saw me when I was a baby. It was crazy to meet such a famous person in the field of stem cell research and then have such a great conversation about work and private life.

Miri: I loved the whole conference, but the plenary sessions have been stunning! As well as the interesting topics, especially the talks covering organoid-based technologies and advancements in embryogenesis, I loved the impressive location, the lightning and the huge screens, which created the perfect environment for learning.

Kerstin: The best lecture for me was by Sara Wickström at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany on ‘Regulation of Stem Cell Fate by Nuclear Mechanotransduction’. She has such a commanding presence on the stage, and presents her work so confidently, strongly and powerfully that it is simply awesome to listen to her talks. It gave me so much motivation to really push forwards with my own work.

Miri: One of my favourite talks has been the one from Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, from California, about ‘Building embryo models from stem cells to understand self organisation’. It was impressive to see advancements in regards to modelling embryogenesis in vitro, and how this results such a powerful tool to help discover the secrets behind the early stages of human embryogenesis.

Miri: The poster presentation was great. I had the opportunity to meet new colleagues working on similar topics, and received a lot of positive feedback and suggestions on how to move forward with my project.

Kerstin: It went very well! I received many helpful and inspiring comments, which gave me new ideas for my further work on the topic. I even found a new collaboration on investigating the heart specific cardiac phenotype of the Bag3P209L patient in more detail using organoids.

Miri: ‘Chemical Hpsc Cardiac Progenitor’s Stabilization In Vitro, Reflects Stage-Specific Heart Development In Vivo’ by Emiliano Bolesani, because it made me think about the use of stem cell-derived cardiac progenitors generated via chromatin stabilisation and  the way this could apply to my own research.

Kerstin: ‘Neuromuscular Organoids As A Unique Model To Study Neuromuscular Injury And Regeneration In Vitro’ by Caroline Beyer as I work with the differentiation protocol for the neuromuscular organoids myself, so the poster gave me new suggestions on things to try in my own research.

Kerstin: Miriana, because we had been introduced by AMSBIO in advance over email and I was curious to meet in real life. We really hit it off at the conference and are still in contact today.

Miri: I was very excited to meet the CEO of AMSBIO Alex Sim! He gave me good advice on how to take my future steps, and it was so nice to hear from him about his own experience at the beginning of his career. Moreover, I was very happy to meet the other AMSBIO travel grant winner, and now friend, Kerstin!

Kerstin: Conferences are really great for connecting with other people in the same field who share your passion for research. You get great input, lots of new ideas on what you can try next, and the chance to meet new potential collaborators.

Miri: The feedback from my poster presentation, which gave me guidance on how to move forward and how to improve my project, as well as all the networking, as well as the time at the exhibitors’ booths for career advice and finding new products for my research.

Miri: How pluripotent stem cell-based tissue engineering and cell-based therapies are taking flight in a variety of different clinical settings. To me it looks like it’s clearly where we are going to find solutions for treating human diseases in the future.

Kerstin: I really feel that the future is in stem cell research, especially with the focus on 2D and 3D structures from iPS cells, and how many innovations there are that make the work easier. I also noticed that in my particular field, very few people are doing research with 2D and 3D muscle cells. It’s made me feel especially motivated to raise its profile to other researchers going forwards. There’s so much potential here!

Miri: I would highly recommend downloading the conference program beforehand to allow you to choose what to attend and where to go. There are hundreds of valuable posters and multiple sessions happening simultaneously. Having a plan in advance means you can navigate the conference in the most effective way possible. Bring some snacks in case you don’t manage to get any food during the lunch break. And last but not least, don’t be shy in interacting with colleagues; networking is the most important thing in an event like this.

Kerstin: Be brave and network, such as daring to talk to someone after their lecture or poster. You can make great contacts, get new ideas for your own work and new collaborations. Also, go to all the company booths to see new devices, tools, media and more that you can use for your work or that make your work easier.

AMSBIO would like to thank Miri and Kerstin for their time, and for being such great winners and enthusiastic scientists. We’re expecting great things from them in the future!

If you would like to know more about their research:

• Click here to find out more on Miriana’s reasearch on Heart Forming Organoids at the Zweigerdt Lab, or find her on LinkedIn here
• Click here to find out more on Kerstin’s lab group at the Fleischmann Laboratory, or click here for her LinkedIn profile
• For a link to AMSBIO’s Skeletal Muscle Differentiation Kit that Kerstin uses in her research, click here