Last week I
attended the 9th CardioAscona workshop in Switzerland. The workshops’
topic this year was ”Cardiomyocyte biology” and we had 4 days full of
interesting talks about all facets of cardiomyocyte research.
Especially
inspiring was the keynote lecture held by Thomas Eschenhagen from Hamburg. He
told us about the opportunities and challenges that pluripotent stem
cell-derived engineered heart tissues (EHT) might have in future. The EHTs, developed
in Hamburg, give us remarkable opportunities in disease modeling and drug
screening. However, their immature state is still one of the main challenges which
we have to think about when using them in drug screenings or translational
research.
CardioAscona
takes place every third year at this wonderful place in south Switzerland. The
venue in the mountains has a terrific view over the beautiful landscape and the
lake. During the networking event we even went to a botanical garden on a small
island by boat and could enjoy plants from all over the world – very unique!
The
interactive atmosphere of the conference made it easy to talk to the other
researchers and get new ideas for my own research topic, for example during the poster sessions.
BS
Comments
Post a Comment