MDR Colloquium December 2023

The MDR December colloquium will be held on Wednesday December 13rd at 4:00 pm (CET), online via TEAMS. We welcome all scientists from the MDR-affiliated institutes (MERLN, ICMS, RMU). You can joined via the MS Teams link received.

During this colloquium we will have 2 speakers:

Dr. Aurélie Carlier– Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine (MERLN)
– “computational modeling of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions ”

Dr. Aurélie Carlier is tenure track Associate Professor at the MERLN Institute in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Her talk will be about the computational modeling of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions: Within tissues, cells interact with each other (e.g., through cell–cell adhesion) and their matrix (e.g., through cell–matrix adhesion) at the same time, and these physical interfaces are integrated into biochemical signals that influence their behavior. Although cell-cell and cell-matrix have been studied extensively in isolation, it is not completely understood 1) how cells sense the individual signals, 2) how cells integrate these, including potential regulating factors. Given the small size and dynamic nature (e.g., short lifetimes) of adhesions, the use of conventional microscopic and experimental techniques can be challenging. In this talk she will highlight ongoing computational modelling efforts to simulate and explore various “what if?” scenarios in silico and define the key molecular components and mechanisms to be explored further, to ultimately contribute to improved biomaterial design and regenerative medicine strategies.

Dr. Zyg Bijonowski – Eindhoven University of Technology – “Senescence Extirpation to Re-establish Cardiac Efficacy (SERCE)”

Zyg completed his PhD in 2019 in the lab of the late Dr. Teng Ma at Florida State University in the USA. There he studied aggregation-related biomechanics in mesenchymal stem cell homeostasis and senescence reduction. He then began a post-doctoral research appointment at the Universitätsklinikum Münster in Germany in the group of Seraphine Wegner, where he explored non-vinculin-dependent cell-cell adhesion in cellular coordination during migration. In September of last year, Zyg joined the team of Nicholas Kurniawan at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he continued to explore the biomechanics of aggregation, neuro-organogenesis, and the topic of today’s presentation cardiac senescence.

Moderator: Hannah Brouwer