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NEWS

Daphne Groothuis helps lead iGEM team to gold

In October 2018, the Univeristy of Nottingham were awarded a prestigious gold medal at the international genetically engineered machine (iGEM) competition.

The project entitled Clostridium ‘dTox; it’s not so difficile’ was devised by undergraduate students working under the supervision of Professor Nigel Minton at the Synthetic Biology Research Centre, Nottingham. Clospore fellow Daphne Groothuis helped lead to the team to gold in an advisory role.

For more information about the project, please follow the links below to the University of Nottingham press release and the iGEM team wiki.

Nottingham press release: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2018/november/students-design-award-winning-superbug-'eater'.aspx

Team wiki: "http://2018.igem.org/Team:Nottingham




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Minutes Thesis (3MT) competition: Sasha Atmadjaja finalist

UPDATE 05/06/2018: In a final of 9 competitors, Sasha presented her 3MT to a live audience at Link '18 conference, and came second. Congratulations Sasha!

Sasha Atmadjaja has made it to the final of the University of Nottingham "3 minute thesis" competition.

The Three Minute Thesis 3MT® is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. The challenge is for researchers to explain the complexity and relevance of their research to a non-specialist audience in a concise and engaging way. Presenters have a maximum of three minutes to pitch their research and can only use one slide.

Sasha will compete in the final at the Link '18 conference on the 31st May 2018.

More information available at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/graduateschool/public-engagement/3-minute-thesis/index.aspx

CLOSPORE WORKSHOPS 3 & 4

Clospore workshops 3 & 4 attendees

3: Biorefineries: the role of microbiology and biotechnology (Wageningen FBR, Wageningen)

16-17th January 2018

The Clospore fellows were hosted at a two-part workshop in the Netherlands in January. The first part took place at Wageningen Food and Biobased Research. In this workshop, the fellows were given an overview of the use of biotechnology in processes for the production of second generation biofuels and chemicals. This included a visit to the BioPilot Facility in Delft and to the Wageningen Food and Biobased Research Innovation Plant.

The workshop programme can be viewed in the Network Events section of this website

4: Translation – From science to applications (Nizo Food Research, Ede)

18th January 2018

Part 2 was hosted by Nizo Food Research in Ede. NIZO’s core activity centre on translating fundamental scientific knowledge to solutions in R & D pipelines of other applications in food and health. The fellows were given examples of how fundamental knowledge can translate to successful products for customers, and how such projects are initiated & implemented. The fellows were challenged to evaluate the potential of their own research for business applications.


Midterm Workshop & Conference: ITQB Nova Lisbon

1-6th May 2017

Clospore workshop attendees and demonstrators at the ITQB Nova laboratories

The Clospore ITN has just hosted its third big training event, Cell and Developmental Biology of the Clostridia. This four-day training event was organised and conducted by Professor Adriano Henriques and Dr Mónica Serrano at the ITQB Nova research institute in Lisbon. Clospore fellows were taught the principles and practice of SNAP/CLIP labelling and fluorescence microscopy.

Group photo of conference attendees at Hotel Vila Galé Collection Palácio dos Arcos

Following the workshop, a two-day conference took place, with invited expert speakers, including Dr Daniel Paredes-Sabja of Universidad Andrés Bello (Santiago, Chile), Professor Philippe Soucialles of Metabolic Explorer/INSA Toulouse and Professor Isabelle Martin-Verstraete of Institut Pasteur. The conference included a session for invited speakers from a previous Marie Curie ITN (Clostnet, project 237942). This session focused on career development, with the presenters describing what they had gone on to do following graduation from their Marie Curie programme.

Amaury Fasquelle presenting the findings of his research into <i>Functional characterization of paralogous proteins during spore development in Clostridium difficile</i>

During the two of the seminars, there were “urban sketchers” in the room summarising the presentations . These are shown below.

Urban sketchers impression of Dr Daniel Paredes-Sabja's presentaion, <i>The outer surface of Clostridium difficle spores</i> Urban sketchers impression of Prof Isabelle Martin-Verstraete's presentaion, <i>The alternative sigma factor σB plays a crucial role in adaptive strategies of Clostridium difficile during gut infection</i>

Clospore Researcher at Clostridia XIV (Dartmouth, USA)

6th September 2016

Sasha Atmadjaja, our Clospore researcher at Green Biologics Ltd, recently travelled to Ivy League university Dartmouth College to participate in the 14th edition of the biennial international conference, Clostridium. Sasha presented her research findings in a poster, titled "Investigating the Link between Endospore Formation and Solvent Production in the Industrial ABE Fermentation Process" (pictured below).

Sasha Atmadjaja (GBL) presenting her poster at Clostridium XIV