Today was a special day for the lab as Denise defended her PhD thesis as the first student of the lab. Denise - who started her PhD in November 2015 shortly after the lab was established - first gave a presentation of her PhD project in front of family, friends and colleagues and afterwards was examined by Prisca, Dirk Schübeler, Anne Grapin-Botton and Filippo Rijli. Her excellent performance was honoured with ‘Summa cum laude’ and an extensively decorated PhD hat. This exciting day ended with celebrations among friends and colleagues.
Denise's PhD defense
FMI Annual Meeting 2019
This year’s FMI Annual Meeting took us to Grindelwald, Switzerland. The program was filled with exciting talks from our colleagues, including one from Qiutan, and the keynote speaker, Sir Adrian Bird from the Welcome Centre of Cell Biology, Edinburgh, UK. Traditionally, we also enjoyed scenic hikes in the Swiss Mountains and a Gala dinner with the infamous follies with a contribution of Prisca.
Clara started her PhD
Today was Clara’s first day as PhD student in the Liberali lab. We are happy to welcome her in our group and wish her all the best for her PhD!
Lab dinner
The hot summer temperatures did not stop us - including the former lab members Aline, Andrea and Petr - to gather, spend a wonderful summer evening in Basel’s city centre and again celebrate Denise’s, Urs’ and Andrea’s paper and prize.
Stuck in the elevator
An elevator ride to our long-awaited lunch break came to a sudden stop as the elevator got stuck on the 4th floor. We all took it with humour as the Novartis fire brigade worked on freeing as while FMI’s group leader Georg Keller entertained our small group from the outside.
Lab retreat in Barcelona
From May 27-29, we spent our annual lab retreat in Barcelona. Besides enjoying the sea, Barcelona’s beautiful architecture, delicious food and impressive Sagrada Familia, we also met with the labs of Miki Ebisuya, James Sharpe and Vikas Trivedia (EMBL) to discuss tissue formation and self-organisation as well as with the lab of Xavier Trepat (IBEC) to discuss tissue mechanics. We returned with our skin lightly tanned and our heads full of new ideas and impressions. Thank you very much to Miki, James, Vikas and Xavier for their hospitality!
First paper published
The first paper of the lab - a beautiful story about symmetry breaking and intestinal organoid development by Denise, Urs and Andrea - was published today. Check it out if you want to see how we used advanced imaging techniques and single cell genomics to unravel the mechanisms of symmetry breaking.
Bruno Speck award ceremony
Denise and Urs gave a talk on their recently by Nature accepted story on symmetry breaking in intestinal organoids at the annual Basel Stem Cell Network meeting where they also received the Bruno Speck award for the best paper in basic research of the Basel Stem Cell community. Congrats, well done!
Our first paper got accepted
Years of hard work and dedication payed off by the acceptance of Denise’s, Urs’ and Andrea’s paper on symmetry breaking in intestinal organoids by Nature. To celebrate this memorable moment - which also marks the first paper of the lab - we ‘decorated’ Prisca’s office and surprised her with a shower of confetti. Nobody can say that the Liberali lab does not know how to celebrate ;) Congrats to everyone who was involved in this very exciting project!
Bruno Speck Award 2019
Denise, Urs and Andrea received the Bruno Speck Award 2019 in the category ‘Basic Research’ (sponsored by the ‘Stiftung für Hämatologische Forschung’) from the Basel Stem Cell Network for their beautiful work on symmetry breaking in organoids. Congrats to the winners!
Farewell dinner for Aline
End of February, we had to say goodbye to Aline, member of the Liberali lab from the first day. In order to celebrate the time spent together, Prisca invited everyone for a dinner at her place. There, we could walk down memory lane while enjoying country-specific food that everyone brought. Aline, we wish you all the best for your future endeavours!
Marietta got the BIF travel grant
Marietta was awarded the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Travel Grant for her stay in Matthias Lutolf’s lab at EPFL, Lausanne. There she learned how to culture gastruloids and started a fruitful collaboration between the two labs.
We celebrate the 'Women in Science' day
With a strong female group leader as a role model, we are proud to have so many intelligent and driven women in our lab. Happy ‘Women in Science’ day!
Merry Christmas
This year, the Liberali lab again gained the victory in the FMI’s Christmas card competition with Marietta’s ‘Organoid Star’. Congrats!
The Liberali lab wishes everyone Merry Christmas, a wonderful time with your families and may all your wishes come true in 2019!
Lab Christmas party
This year’s Christmas party led us to a laser tag court where we played three games against each other and we could discover our inner warrior. This exhausting but exciting adventure was followed by our traditional Christmas market visit and a delicious Italian dinner.
Review on self-organisation
Aline’s and Prisca’s review on self-organisation was published in ‘The FEBS Journal’ today. If you are interested how a group of cells interacts and coordinates to form complex three-dimensional structures, check out this interesting review.
FMI Annual Meeting 2018
This year’s FMI Annual Meeting took us to beautiful and snowy Pontresina, Switzerland. The program was filled with exciting talks from our colleagues, including one from Denise, and the keynote speaker, Elly Tanaka from IMP, Vienna. Traditionally, we also enjoyed scenic hikes in the Swiss Mountains and a Gala dinner with the infamous follies, this year spiced up by a performance of the junior group leaders including Prisca.
Poster prize
Ilya won the poster prize at the ‘Modelling Organ Development and Disease in 3D Culture’ conference at EMBL, Heidelberg for his poster on screening intestinal organoids. Congrats!
Talk and poster prize at Basel Stem Cell Network Meeting
Basel’s experts in stem cell biology met at the Basel Stem Cell Network Meeting to discuss recent findings and hot topics in stem cell research. Denise gave a highly appreciated talk on symmetry breaking in intestinal organoids and Qiutan won the poster prize with a poster on mechanics during bud formation. Congrats!
Goodbye, Claudia!
Today, we said goodbye to Claudia who joined us twice for a 6 months internship. Coming from an organic chemistry background, she was introduced to the world of biology and organoids in our lab. We hope she won’t lose her curiosity for the life sciences and wish her all the best for her PhD studies!
