Paper out !

Our resource paper on gastruloid development is finally out!! An amazing work of current and former lab members which made this possible, huge congrats to all involved!
Below you can see a shortened version of the abstract for more information:

“Gastruloids are 3D structures generated from pluripotent stem cells recapitulating fundamental principles of embryonic pattern formation. Using single-cell genomic analysis, high throughput imaging and a phenotypic compound screening we provide a resource functionally mapping cell states and types with spatial resolution. We report an early spatial variability in pluripotency exit determining a binary response to Wnt activation. Although cells in the gastruloid-core revert to pluripotency, peripheral cells become primitive streak-like. These two populations subsequently break radial symmetry and initiate axial elongation. Finally, using a dual Wnt modulation, we improve the formation of anterior structures in the existing gastruloid model. This work provides a resource to understand how gastruloids develop and generate complex patterns in vitro.”

Suppinger, Zinner, Aizarani, Lukonin et al., Cell Stem Cell (2023)

BaCell3d 2023

BaCell3D was a great sucess! a wide range of great speakers and great interaction!

For the second year we are happy to have helped the organisation of the BaCell3D conference, hosted this year in the beautiful KHaus.
The conference focused on how organoids and organ-on-chip can recapitulate development or regeneration and how these systems can be used for personalised medicine and disease modelling.
This year we had a full house with people from all around the world. We had a series of inspiring and exciting talks (including our keynotes Hans Clevers and Melissa Little), fun chats, poster session and some fun with apero and live music.
Check out Twitter for more info and hope to see you again next year!

Lab cleaning day

End of the year is a time of reflection, a time to look around and re-evaluate what is valuable and what needs to go. Following this spirit each end of the year we organize one lab cleaning day, where each one of us gets particular roles to fight entropy and bring the lab back to lower energy levels. Of course this also requires strong hands, the right dress code, access to higher grounds and lots of creativity! ;-)

FMI Annual Meeting 2022

From 20th to 22nd of September the FMI had its Annual Meeting in the beautiful Grindelwald. We had a packed program with selected talks (including a talk from Conny!), poster sessions and an afternoon with hikes! At the evening of the 21st we also had our Gala Dinner where we listened to an inspiring talk from Roger Schaeli and of course the FMI follies.

FMI Annual Meeting 2022. Picture by Sjoerd van Eden

FMI Annual Meeting 2022. Picture by Sjoerd van Eden.

Laura joined the Lab!

Today we welcomed Laura as a new postdoctoral fellow in the lab! During her PhD, Laura focused on lipid cell biology and investigated how lipids can influence cellular states. She will now use intestinal organoids to get a deeper insight into the involvement of lipid metabolism in cell fate determination with a focus on the stem cell niche formation. We look forward to work together with you in the upcoming years!

The Liberali Lab at the BaCell3D Conference

This year marks the first iteration of the BaCell3D conference. The conference focuses on how organoid and organ-on-a-chip technologies can be used to recapitulate development or regeneration, and how these model systems can be used for disease modelling, drug discovery, and personalised medicine. We look forward to exciting talks (including keynotes from Nicolas Rivron and Kara McKinley), refreshing discussions, and for many of us the first in-person meeting after the long break!

Welcome Joel

Today Joel joined the lab as a bioimage analysis expert. Joel did his PhD at the University of Zürich studying cardiac differentiation and developing 3D image analysis pipelines. In the lab he will work on building Python-based 3D image analysis and visualisation workflows to study high content images of organoids and other 3D structures. We look forward to work together with you!

Welcome Nadim!

Today we welcome Nadim, a new postdoctoral fellow in the lab. Nadim did his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany focusing on single-cell biology of the liver in the context of health, disease, and regeneration. In the Liberali lab he aims to investigate the emergence and plasticity of colorectal cancer in human intestinal organoids. Enjoy your stay in the lab!

Annual group retreat in Interlaken, Switzerland!

In September of this year, the group was finally able to go out again together for some fun days in a cozy hut near Interlaken. The rain could not stop us from kayaking on our first afternoon in the area, and luckily the weather cleared up for a small hike towards the Faulhorn close to Grindelwald on the next day. Undoubtedly, the highlight was a cooking-competition on our final evening together.

Thank you to everyone involved!

Marietta's PhD defense

Marietta who started her PhD in May 2016 defended her PhD thesis on symmetry breaking in gastruloids. First, she gave a presentation of her PhD project in front of family, friends and colleagues either present in the room or via Zoom and afterwards was examined by Prisca, Fiona Doetsch, Madeline Lancaster, Jörg Betschinger and Marc Bühler. Her performance was honoured by the lab with a gastruloid-shaped piñata, an extensively decorated PhD hat and lots of confetti (Liberali lab-style).

Qiutan's paper published in Nature Cell Biology

In our newest work, Qiutan and Shi-Lei Xue from Edouard Hannezo’s lab at IST (Austria) show how mechano-osmotic forces guide intestinal organoid formation. Check out the full story and the News and Views. Congratulations to everyone involved on this beautiful work!