The stem cell world meets in Hannover - 4th Annual Conference of the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN)

We, two PhD students, attended the 4th Annual Conference of the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN) in Hannover during the last 3 days. After a relaxed journey to Hannover we discovered new and inventive Science projects about stem cell technologies and development from Germany and all over the world.

The conference took place at the Hannover Medical School, where we listened to excellent talks in parallel sessions. The diverse topics were about Pluripotency and Reprogramming, Somatic stem cells and development, Hematopoietic stem cells, genome engineering and gene therapy, and many many more. Especially talks and posters about tissue engineering and organoids were fascinating and invited to think about how we could use them in the future.

During numerous keynote lectures from well-known experts from all over the world (USA, Japan, Canada, etc.), we heard about cellular heterogeneity of stem cell population and organogenesis in pigs. We were really surprised to see how mature human organs can be generated in pigs! 

We were happy to present our own data in a poster session along with about 150(!) posters, and to discuss our plans with other researchers. Also seeing other peoples efforts in the research field are not too far from our own, and getting lots of positive feedback about our work, was gratifying. It was a really great experience.

After the official talks we spent a lovely warm summer night at the Hannover Zoo. After the polar bear feeding, which took place right next to our dinner location, we had a great dinner, found old and new friends and enjoyed the time. A very special location to socialize with other scientists!

Altogether we had three exciting days in a really nice city meeting very inspiring scientists. 

BS & AT