We presented at the last PRACTICAl meeting

The last annual PRACTICAL Consortium meeting took place on 9th and 10th of July in the historical city of Oxford. Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella, as member of this consortium, attended and presented our research on “The use of 3D cell cultures to understand the biology of the prostate cancer”. The presentation was very welcome by the audience which looked very interested in collaborating to functional validate some of their genetic/genomic findings or to test new drugs.

Moreover, Clara had the opportunity to meet with our collaborators Dr Maria Jesus Alvarez Cubero and Luis Javier Martinez from GENYO-University of Granada (Spain). No doubts this collaboration is succeeding and will bring good news soon!

PRACTICAL Consortium meeting. Oxford 2024
Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella presenting our work on The use of 3D cell culture models to understand the prostate cancer biology

An evening of Research and Community

24/11/2023

The St George’s University Postgraduate Symposium is an annual informal event designed for Postgraduate students to showcase their research and bring together the community. Aurora Campagna, PhD student and one of the event organisers, and Mark Bodman-Smith, Deputy Head, Graduate School (Research) and our team’s collaborator, reflect on this year’s event below:

A jaw-dropping event
Aurora explained: “In previous years the symposium has taken place onsite at St George’s; however, thanks to the funding offered by the Research Culture Fund, this year we had the opportunity to organise an unforgettable event at the Royal Society of Arts in the cosy and intimate Durham Auditorium. It was apparent from the outset that the event was a success: the animated discussions over coffee at the initial welcome soon lead into the main auditorium and the science proper. Thanks to the engagement from the Postgraduate community, we hosted 15 different speakers from all the research institutes at the university. The quality of the talks presented at this year’s event was jaw-dropping and engaging, with the wide range of projects, meaning everyone was interested!”

Winning presentations and insightful guidance
Aurora went on to say: “One consequence of the high quality of all the fantastic talks was that it certainly made it very difficult for the judging panel to decide on the best talks. Dr David Clark, Dr Kazim Ogmen, and Dr Farah Seedat did a great job dealing with the burden of assigning the prizes to the four winners of the day: Jake Wildfire, Zena Wehbe, Joseph Delo and Julia Kutschenreuter. Thank you to all the institute directors for providing the generous prizes and the institute managers for making this aspect of the Symposium organisation work. The day was closed by the sincere and insightful talks from our PhD alumni: Dr Joe Fenn, now a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London, and Dr Stas Vasiljevs, Research Contract Officer for JRES at St George’s , who shared their experiences and advice on how to embark on two different career paths for the postgraduate students in the audience.

Building a tighter research culture

Reflecting on the evening, Aurora said, “Perhaps the thing we are most pleased to report is how we accomplished the ultimate aim of the Symposium which was to build a tighter research culture within our community. The level of engagement of Principle Investigators, postdoctoral researchers and students was extremely high. This meant that everybody enjoyed their time together while feeling comfortable talking about
their research. The group was cohesive and happy to be there, so much that everyone was very reluctant to leave the place!

Aurora further said: “At least from a PhD student perspective, we have realised the importance of having our Symposium in an amusing and cosy off-site venue to enjoy each other’s work and company without the temptation of sneaking back to the office or laboratory. I think we finally have had the time to rebuild the research culture that we may have missed in the wake of COVID.”

Mark shared his thoughts on the successful event saying: “I was fortunate to be able to attend this year’s Postgraduate Symposium which was held at the RSA and I have to agree that this was a fabulous day.  Many thanks need to go to the three organisers Aurora Campagna, Elisabeth Forrester and Ramla Cusman for their effort in presenting such a professional event.  From the early morning coffee to the drinks reception in the evening, the behaviour of our students and the professional quality of their presentations was outstanding. Thanks to all involved in shortlisting and judging the talks, and also the staff at the RSA for making this a day to enjoy. I’d also like to add my thanks to the Institutes for their contribution to the prizes and the Research Culture fund for making this such a success. I’ve been lucky to be involved with the post-graduate community at the University for many years and this event goes to highlight the importance of this driven group to St George’s well done.”


We attended the Adhesion and Migration and the Actin Meeting 2023 Conferences!

20/12/2023

Dr Ferran Valderrama, member of the scientific panel of the Royal Microscopy Society, and Aurora Campagna, our final year PhD student, attended the Adhesion and Migration Conference and the Actin Meeting in September and December 2023, respectively.

On both occasions Aurora’s abstract was chosen for an oral presentation which led to interesting discussions with the audience and raised interest in potential collaborations involving the application of our 3D cell-culture system in the study of Prostate Cancer progression and the search of new treatments.


11/10/2022

Stefano Carulli presents his BSc Biomedical Sciences Y3 project at the William Perkin CofE High School

This morning, our BSc Biomedical Sciences year 3 research project student Stefano Carulli, has presented to the William Perkin CofE High School students a photovoice activity. As part of his year 3 research project, Stefano will be working in the next three months with a group of 18 science students aged between 11 and 14 on a photovoice activity consisting of the creation of PowerPoint presentations on scientific topics through the sole use of images. This project will hopefully help pupils develop knowledge and awareness in particular science topics and improve their soft skills such as scientific communication and presentation skills. Stefano, under the supervision of Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella and with the help of the school teacher responsible for the Science Elite students group Anita Kapila, will be coordinating and guiding these students throughout the process which will end with a final session where the resulting work will be presented to the others. Stefano was absolutely amazed by the engagement that the William Perkin students have shown in this launching session. Good luck with your project Stefano!

Stefano presenting the Photovoice project
to the William Perkins CofE High School students
William Perkin School students listening attentively to Stefano’s presentation

We attended the EACR and Frontiers in Bioimaging 2022 Conferences!

It’s been a busy time for the Prostate Cancer Biology Lab. Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella and PhD student Aurora Campagna attended the European Association of Cancer Research (EACR) Congress 2022 in Seville (20th-23rd June) where Aurora presented a poster “Generating novel prostate cancer 3D models for prognostics, diagnostics and immunotherapy”. Aurora also attended the Frontiers in Bioimaging 2022 meeting in Birmingham. Aurora’s abstract was selected for oral presentation which got great attention from the audience.

Aurora Campagna next to the poster presented at the EACR Congress 2022
Dr Clara Cieza-Borrella and PhD student Aurora Campagna at the EACR Congress 2022, Seville

14/06/2022

Our MSci student has been awarded at the ISCOMS 2022 Conference

BREAKING NEWS! Our MSci Biomedical Sciences student Ms Mary-Pia Jeyarajasingham has been awarded a certificate for the best oral presentation in the category of cell biology at the International Student Congress of (bio)Medical Sciences (ISCOMS) 2022 in Groningen, the Netherlands. This three-days congress included various keynote lectures, interactive workshops and presentations and poster sessions from various students worldwide. Mary-Pia says “This has been a fantastic experience and I would highly recommend to any research student from both medical or biomedical backgrounds. I am also an official ISCOMS ambassador for 2023 and am happy for potential attendees to contact me.”

Ms Mary-Pia presenting at the ISCOMS 2022 Cell Biology session
Mary-Pia was awarded a certificate for the best oral presentation in cell biology


26/05/2022

Our team participates in the Science Museum Lates series:

“Cancer Revolution, Science, Innovation and Hope”

Our PhD student Aurora Campagna and MSci Biomedical Science student Mary-Pia Jeyarajasingham participated yesterday in the Science Museum Lates themed “Cancer Revolution, Science, Innovation and Hope”. Through the use of hands-on workshops Aurora and Mary-Pia engaged the audience and explained the recent developments in cancer immunotherapies and the novel technologies currently used in cancer cell biology respectively. This was the first free exhibition of the Cancer Revolution series post-lockdown and it got more than 1.5K visitors! The Science Museum Group was very pleased with the success of the event. Our team is looking forward to participating in future editions!

More information about the Science Museum Lates HERE

Aurora Campagna explaining cancer immunotherapies to some of the Science Museum Lates visitors
Mary-Pia Jeyarajasingham speaking to one of the Lates attendees

18/02/2022

NeoPhore agrees a research collaboration with the Prostate Cancer Research Laboratory

St George’s, University of London and NeoPhore today announce the expansion of their research partnership after a successful collaboration investigating novel cancer immunotherapies.

NeoPhore, a cancer immuno-oncology company, is seeking to develop its pipeline of candidate therapies that make cancers more easily recognised for destruction by the immune system.

The small molecule drug candidates disrupt a DNA mismatch repair pathway in tumour cells, causing the cells to accumulate a greater number of mutations. These highly mutated cells are more easily identified by the immune system, enabling immune cells to seek and destroy them.

In May 2021, St George’s and NeoPhore agreed a research collaboration, with the university providing space in Dr Ferran Valderrama’s laboratory for NeoPhore’s scientists to carry out experiments in the development of their first-in-class therapies.

Dr Valderrama, Reader in Cancer Cell Biology at St George’s, explained how the NeoPhore partnership will speed up the development of novel cancer therapies: “Combining our expertise in cell culture models and imaging with their expansive drug development knowledge, we’ve been able to diversify our research and build new skills that will carry forward into future research projects.

This announcement recognises the expansion of the collaboration, with NeoPhore doubling the full-time researchers positioned at St George’s, a strategic move that will allow them to  further accelerate their research programmes.

The collaboration will continue to make use of St George’s cutting-edge research facilities, including bench space for tissue culture experiments as well as access to the university’s leading Image Resource Facility.

Speaking on the partnership, Dr Matthew Baker, Chief Executive Officer at NeoPhore, said: “We’re delighted to expand our collaboration with St George’s, and by working closely with Dr Valderrama, we have added a new dimension to our work, bringing his scientific expertise to our research. The fantastic team at St George’s has enabled us to accelerate our drug development programme, while providing the flexibility of a space that already has the world class facilities we need to carry out our research.”

Professor Jon Friedland, Deputy Principal for Research and Enterprise at St George’s, University of London, added: “By expanding our collaboration with NeoPhore, we are further building our relationship and helping them to reach their goals”.