Liberali lab is featured on the Novartis Live Magazine! The issue covers collaborative science, highlighting selected research groups from Novartis and the FMI.
Credit: Novartis/Laurids Jensen
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!
Review on collective cell behaviour in organoids
Are you interested in learning more on how individual units orchestrate collective behaviours like force-generation, oscillations, or migration? Qiutan wrote a review-article on this topic, which was published today in “Current Opinion in Cell Biology”. You can find the full article here.
Lab dinner (finally, in-person!)
With the eased Covid restrictions, we were finally able to have a in-person social event all together as a lab. We enjoyed some home-made food, karaoke, and beautiful balcony views at Prisca’s place and also celebrated Francis’ retirement.
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!
Gustavo's paper on bioRxiv
Prisca promoted to senior group leader
We are happy to celebrate Prisca’s promotion to senior group leader at the FMI! Congratulations to Prisca and everyone who worked and helped bring the lab to this memorable moment. We enjoyed some good company and champagne on a sunny day at the Rhein and reminisced about the struggles and joys of the journey. Cheers to more science adventures to come!
Congratulations Prisca!
Prisca receives the Friedrich Miescher Award, which was established in 1969 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of DNA by the Basel scientist Friedrich Miescher. Beyond the beautiful medal, it is Switzerland’s highest distinction for outstanding achievements in biochemistry and awarded yearly to a young scientist based in Switzerland. This year the award is also shared with EPFL Professor Andrea Ablasser. Congratulations!
Virtual Christmas party
We decided that a pandemic won’t stop us from celebrating Christmas in the lab, thus, we organised a virtual Christmas party. After enjoying dinner in front of the computer, we reveiled our Secret Santa buddies, guessed baby pictures and played around with Zoom’s background and video options. Although the circumstances forced us to not celebrate in each other’s present, we still had a wonderful evening together.
Paper on phenotypic landscape of intestinal organoids published
Today, Ilya’s screen on intestinal organoid formation was published in Nature. He treated 400,000 organoids with an annotated library of 3000 compounds to infer a map of functional interactions. He also identified a small compound inhibiting RXR that maintains the regenerative state both in intestinal organoids and in mice. Check out this beautiful paper that also made it on the Nature cover. If you want to learn more about the journey that led to this publication, check out Ilya’s Behind the paper.
Review on coordinated behaviour
Marietta’s, Ilya’s and Prisca’s review on coordinated behaviour was published in ‘Current Opinion in Cell Biology’ today. If you are interested in learning more about the design principles of coordinated behaviour across scales, check out this interesting review.
Franziska joins the lab
Franziska joined the lab for her PhD. We are looking forward to work on exciting projects with you in the upcoming years!
Silvia and Jan-Daniele join the lab
Silvia and Jan-Daniele join the lab as Master’s student for the next 6 months to work on mouse and human intestinal organoids, respectively. Enjoy your stay!
5 year anniversary
Today we celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the Liberali lab with flowers and champagne!
Qiutan's paper on bioRxiv
Qiutan’s exciting story on how differences in osmotic forces combined with changes of myosin patterns drive robust intestinal crypt morphogenesis was published on bioRxiv. Congrats!
Cell scientist to watch
You want to learn more about Prisca, what drives and motivates her? Then read this inspiring interview with a ‘cell scientist to watch’.