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UniStem Day 2023 | Workshops

Inspiring the younger generation’s curiosity and interest in science!

Can you grow a brain in a dish? How do blood stem cells look in the microscope? These and many more questions will be answered by motivated PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and senior scientists during UniStem Day on March 10, 2023.

Workshops will be held in English and/or Swedish. Learn more about each of our interactive sessions below:

VIdeo: Experiences from UniStem Day 2020

Can you grow a brain in a dish?

Is it possible to grow a brain in a dish? Find out in our workshop, where you will learn what stem cells are, and how we can use them to generate brain cells for our studies. Inside a real laboratory, you will also help us grow some “mini-brains” by feeding them with fresh media, in the same way, we do every day. 

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Behavioral assessment of neural stem cell transplants – From animal models to functional assessment

In this workshop, we will present how researchers assess neural stem cells in vivo (in a living organisim). We will give an introduction about research on laboratory animals, how we create models of neurodegenerative diseases, and how to assess neural stem cells in vivo. The focus is on Parkinson’s disease and the transplantation of cells into the brain of rodents. After the workshop, the students will have a basic idea about the animal models used for transplantation, how to assess graft survival and the immune response, and also how a neural stem cell transplant can improve the behaviour of a rodent that has been rendered parkinsonian. In the practical part of the workshop, the students will practice their newly gained knowledge by performing transplantation surgery.

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Precious hematopoietic stem cells in cord blood

In the theoretical part (15 minutes) we would like to explainhematopoietic stem cells (HSC), also known as blood stem cells, and their therapeutic applications in the clinic. We will focus on umbilical cord blood-derived HSCs. The umbilical cord connects the baby with the mother during pregnancy and is a rich source of HSCs. After delivery, a good number of HSCs can be collected from the umbilical cord. In the practical part (30 minutes), we will explain and show the major steps of HSC isolation from umbilical cord blood and how to assess the purity of isolated cells using flow cytometry.

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Snitta hjärnan och hitta transplantat

Ni kommer att få se hur man snittar en hjärna och hur man sen märker in den med speciella antikroppar för att kunna visualisera transplanterade stamceller. I mikroskopet letar vi sen upp cellerna och tittar på hur de transplanterade cellerna ser ut. Vi kommer även att visa hur man använder avancerad 3D imaging.

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Bone marrow in the (bright field/fluorescence) spotlight

You will learn what hematopoietic stem cells are and how they manage to replenish all our blood cells every day. We will do some histological and fluorescent staining on human blood samples, and look at the results under the microscope together. Afterwards, you will see some real science-world applications of the staining you did.

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Cutting a mouse brain and visualizing cells using immunohistochemistry

In this workshop, we will show how to cuta mouse brain into thin slices to use in immunohistochemistry. We will then explain how immunohistochemistry works, and why and how we do it. We will also carry out a mock test of the experiment and show results with a printed image of DAPI staining.

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Organisms with extraordinary regenerative powers

Salamanders are amazing animals that after injuries are able to regrow entire limbs, tails, parts of their brains, and more. How these animals perform such feats is still not understood. We will take a peek at these animals under the microscope, looking at them during embryonic growth, since they develop completely outside their mothers. If we are lucky, these animals may also have fluorescent protein expression, so they will glow!

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Studying human immune cells in the lab using flow cytometry

How can we tell different types of immune cells apart from each other in the blood? In this workshop, we will talk about which features distinguish human B and T cells from each other, and how we can use these differences to study them. We will stain cells with fluorescent antibodies targeting different surface proteins, and then look at how to analyze the cells in a flow cytometer, an instrument commonly used both in research labs and in the clinic.

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Crispr-Cas9 – a revolutionary tool for gene therapy in human disease?

This workshop will start with an overview of the CRISPR technology, its novelty and applications in both stem cells and other cell types. We will then examine the DNA sequence of a gene and look for potential cut sites, design guide RNAs and talk about how to perform an experiment and what happens in the DNA after the CRISPR-cut. This will be followed by an exercise in experimental design. We will then end with a small discussion of the potential of CRISPR-technology in human gene-editing and the ethical considerations surrounding such an approach.

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How do nerve cells communicate?

We will begin with a small presentation about how to go from a stem cell to a neural cell and electrophysiology. When you direct a stem cell to become a neural cell you need to make sure you obtain a cell withneuronal function and activity. Neurons communicate with each other through electrical signals, with electrophysiology it is possible to measure the electrical activity of individual neurons or larger networks of neural cells. Afterwards, we will move to the electrophysiology setup and give a short demonstration of how it works. With the help of a micromanipulator, it is possible to connect and form a circuit with a cell of interest, measuring electrical activity, stimulating it with electrical current and recording the concentration of different ion channels.

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Electrophysiology: Measuring electrical activity of neuronal cells

We will begin with a small presentation about how to go from a stem cell to a neural cell and electrophysiology. When you direct a stem cell to become a neural cell you need to make sure you obtain a cell withneuronal function and activity. Neurons communicate with each other through electrical signals, with electrophysiology it is possible to measure the electrical activity of individual neurons or larger networks of neural cells. Afterwards, we will move to the electrophysiology setup and give a short demonstration of how it works. With the help of a micromanipulator, it is possible to connect and form a circuit with a cell of interest, measuring electrical activity, stimulating it with electrical current and recording the concentration of different ion channels.

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The journey from skin biopsies to edited Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

We will briefly talk about the reprogramming of human skin biopsies to the iPS cells, quality control of the iPS cells/edited iPS cells, and the applications of these cells in research and therapy. Students can be involved in some cell work and lab work if they like.

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How to use viruses to fight genetic diseases?

​​​​​​This workshop will teach you how viruses can be used to cure genetic diseases. We will show you how viruses are produced in the lab, and how they are used in gene therapies to treat patients. You will prepare a DNA sample that will be used to produce a real virus that can be used to modify the DNA of blood stem cells.

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What do blood stem cells produce in a patient following a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation?

Kees-Jan Pronk is a pediatric oncologist and works clinically with patients that undergo hematopoietic stem cell (blood stem cell) transplantation, and together with laboratory engineer Maria Björklund, they will lead this workshop. As a patient’s own blood cell system is completely destroyed by chemotherapy prior to the transplantation, the transplanted blood stem cells have to recover all blood cell lineages as soon as possible to avoid severe complications. Students will learn some of the basics of this blood system recovery during the workshop. We will run a blood sample and evaluate the number of blood cells we have in our body, and in addition, we will look under the microscope and see what these cells look like. 

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Genotypning av knockout-möss

För att förstå hur en specfik gen fungerar kan man använda sig av djurmodeller där man ”knockat ut” genen, dvs gjort så att inget protein kan bildas. I denna workshop kommer studenterna prova på de praktiska moment som ingår för att genotypa KO-möss som vi använder oss av i vår stamcellsforskning. Efter en kort introduktion kommer studenterna få gjuta en gel och ladda prover vi förberett från möss med olika genotyper. Därefter kommer de få tyda resultaten och försöka bestämma vilka prover som kommer från vildtypsmöss och vilka som kommer från KO-möss.

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Exploring your DNA with a minion

We will explain why Nanopore long-read sequencing is a good approach, especially in light of the research of our group. In the first part, we will have a short presentation about the technique, then we will show the students the instrument and how the samples have to be loaded. Then finally we will demonstrate how the bioinformatic analysis is done.

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Next, we will build a lung. But first, let’s find out which surface the lung cells like!

Millions of people suffer each year due to chronic lung diseases and one way to cure them is through a lung transplant. The problem is we simply do not have enough lungs to transplant so one possible way out is to try building one ourselves. One crucial challenge in this journey can be as simple as searching the material that has the right physical property and at the same time, is liked enough by the cells so they want to attach to it. In this workshop, you will learn the basics of lung cell culture and observe how different surfaces can affect how they will behave.

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Transplant cells into the brain and find them 

Have you ever wondered how scientists are able to study human stem cells in the mouse brain? In this workshop students will learn and practice how to transplant cells (mock injections) inside the brain (gelatine brains), they will practice the process of cutting a brain into thin slices, mark the proteins of different cell types using specific antibodies that recognize them and mount the sliced sections on slides to visualize them under the microscope. For each step, students will first get a short introduction and later they will be able to practice the techniques. They will be encouraged to ask questions during the workshop.

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Finding a needle in a haystack: Colorful tools for cell analysis

How do you know that the cells you are working with are actually what you think they are? Cells are transparent and do not show all their differences when you look at them in a light microscope. Labelling targets on cells with different fluorescent colours enables us to distinguish cell types from each other, detect functional changes and separate one cell population from another. It can also help you find that very rare cell that you are looking for. Be your own cell sorter, and image the colourful, hidden world of cells!

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