8th Astrotech workshop, Cambridge, 9-11 October 2023-University of Cambridge, Robinson College
7th Astrotech workshop, Madrid, 13-14 July 2023-CAJAL INSTITUTE, CSIC- VENUE: RESIDENCIA DE ESTUDIANTES, CSIC, Calle del Pinar, 21-23, 28006 Madrid
6th Astrotech workshop, Logroño ” Fundamentals of material printing technologies and smart composites integration in tools for neural-cell cultures , 15-17 May 2023 , Avanzare Innovacion Tecnologica S.L., Avenida Lentiscares 4-6, 26370 Navarrete,
5th Astrotech Training School and ASTROTECH MID TERM REPORT Meeting, 23rd-26th January, 2023, IIT-CNST, Milan.
4th Astrotech Workshop: “Seeing is believing, quantifying is deciding”, INEB, Porto, Portugal-26th 28th September 2022
4th Astrotech training school was held at the institute of Biomedical Engineering of the institute for research & innovation in health (INEB-i3S) in Porto, Portugal. This training school was focused on the most commonly used techniques for culture imaging and 3D imaging models. The subjects on this training school include lectures and practical lessons on astrocyte function, cell-material interactions, 2D vs 3D in vivo cultures, mimicking the cellular microenvironment, 3D glial cell cultures, hydrogel fabrication, imaging flow cytometry, light sheet microscopy, microCT, and data visualization and analysis. This school broadened the tools available for us to study Astrocyte function.
3rd Astrotech Workshop: “How to do science, how to publish it, and how to evaluate it?”, INSERM-AMU, Marseille, France-20th-21st June, 2022.
This training school was focused on scientific writing, and analysis and interpretation of scientific papers. In this case, lectures were given about philosophy of knowledge, biases while writing, and techniques for proper scientific communication. This school also included a workshop in scientific article review, in which we were taught the methodology for paper submission and revisions, as well as analysis of several submitted manuscripts in order to identify their weaknesses and challenges. This school was of extreme interest and importance since this school dealt with broader themes regarding a scientific career. Even though the focus was not specific to Astrotech’s objective of the study of Astrocytes, the subjects studied in this training school allows for a more holistic career development of the ESRs.
Astrotech 2nd Workshop: “Studying Materials-Glial cells interfaces”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Area della Ricerca di Bologna, Bologna, Italy 22nd-24th April, 2022.
This training school focused on the study of material-glial cells interfaces. This training school consisted in theoretical lectures and practical laboratory workshops. The theoretical lectures dealt with biomaterials used in glial cells interfaces and sensors and their respective synthesis and characterizations, applying techniques such as SEM, TEM, AFM, etc. The practical workshops included exploring synthesis techniques for biomaterials as well as the preparation of cell cultures (of glial cells) and their characterizations. The workshops include: Preparation of Hydrotalcite (HTLc) and Silk fibroin (SF) fibres by electrospinning, primary astrocytes cell cultures, fluorescein diacetate (FDA) essay, AlamarBlue (AB) essay, and calcium Imaging.
1st ASTROTECH Training School- 5 – 8 October, 2021, IEM-CAS, Prague, CZ.
On 5 – 8 October 2021, the first international scientific workshop of the Astrotech project, focused on glial cell research, took place at the IEM CAS. The four-day workshop was divided into theoretical and practical parts. The first day of the workshop was dedicated to presentations. Miroslava Anděrová, Director of the IEM CAS, together with the project coordinators Valentina Benfenati and Luca Maiolo from the Italian National Research Council (Cnr-Isof) in Bologna, gave the opening speech. Other speakers included foreign PhD students who presented their research projects and institutions. In the afternoon programme, scientists from the IEM CAS gave lectures on glial cell research and the laboratory methods used. The remaining days were devoted to practical demonstrations in the laboratories of the Department of Cellular Neurophysiology, Neurochemistry and Auditory Neuroscience.
