Stay tuned for rebirth of #ASCB course: June 22-July 3, 2026!

End of course, with students/instructors on a boat cruise along the Seine; magical Paris by night, one iconic site after another. Extremely grateful to all instructors for their dedication, and students for their enthusiasm and participation - also for the lovely gifts and card!

The final lecture by Peter Currie @petecurr on clonal dynamics and intravital imaging in zebrafish skeletal muscle - normal + myopathic contexts. Fun, insightful, with an evolutionary twist - what sharks can tell us about the evolution of vertebrates, fins and limbs.

Francina Langa Vives expertly covered different ways of generating transgenic models, and her skilled team provided hands-on opportunities to inject DNA into the pronucleus post-fertilisation and ES cell injections into blastocysts. Powerful, as always!.

Finished off the skeletal muscle stem cells - more thoughts on different genetic tools and biological outcomes @LabTajbakhsh

Beautiful work where @CedricBlanpain covered a wide range of stem cells in epithelial tissues, tumours, stem cell diversity/plasticity - Matthias Lutolf @TheLutolfLab tackled tissue engineering, informing on normal/tumor biology. Excellent examples of context + niches.

Hatching into the next module with Olinda Alegria-Prevot from the Gros lab @JgrosL and Charlène Guillot @Charln_RGuillot who showed the power of avian models, isolating, electroporating early embryos. The ability to follow tissue emergence, live.

Students also brainstormed questions and proposed experiments in sub-groups - great teamwork, exploring the how and why, strategies and pitfalls.

The 2nd week followed on experiments + new ones on regeneration in annelid Platynereis_ Eve Gazave/Zoé Velasquillo @stemdevevo; HSCs in liver/bone marrow with Ana Cumano. Both expertly guided us through development/evolution. Broad views on cells/tissues/degeneration/regeneration

RT @LabTajbakhsh: and picnic-ing.

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Relaxing on the rooftop, an evening picnic with students and instructors

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Taking us through axial elongation is David Turner @da40cambs, a great teacher of ES cell handling and formulating protoc….

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Superb dual lectures by @AMartinezArias on mouse, human, multispecies, embryology, gastruloids; from bench to birth - dis….

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Isolation of small intestine and colon crypts to make organoids with Giulia Nigro, Aline Stedman, Sophie Dulauroy -  foll….

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Isolation of muscle fibres and their stem (satellite) cells. Plate and wait, from quiescence to differentiation - followi….

RT @LabTajbakhsh: Laura Cantini & Stephan Fisher lectures guided us through the trials and tribulations of omics - the power and drawbacks….

RT @LabTajbakhsh: 1st week ends with: a swim in the zebrafish brain - cool genetic tracing of neural stem cells with @zenlabpasteur, Laure….

and picnic-ing.

Relaxing on the rooftop, an evening picnic with students and instructors

Taking us through axial elongation is David Turner @da40cambs, a great teacher of ES cell handling and formulating protocols for reproducible gastruloid generation. A-P extension, and into the 2nd week.