Developing a model of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC)

By LifETIME CDT Student: Eduardo Ribes Martínez (NUI Galway)   What is adrenocortical carcinoma or ACC? Is it possible to have cancer in the adrenal glands? Who gets that? I never heard of that before! These are a few of the questions that might cross your mind when you read the title of this text.

Joints in the lab

By LifETIME CDT Student: Maria Laura Vieri (University of Glasgow) Hi everyone, I am a 1st year LifETIME CDT student. My PhD project is focused on the development of 3D hydrogel-based models of bone and cartilage, which can be used to evaluate the differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into relevant cell lineages. Over

Today’s Special – “heart-attack-on-a-dish”

By LifETIME CDT Student: Meenakshi Suku (Trinity College Dublin) Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, claiming the lives of approximately 17.9 million people every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). In the 2017 WHO report on cardiovascular diseases, 85% of these deaths were due to heart attack, or myocardial

An Extracellular Vesicle appreciation blog post

By LifETIME CDT Student: Megan Boseley (Aston University)   Approximately three years ago, after completing a highly specialised, placement heavy pathology degree, I decided the clinical laboratory career, with repetitive workload and little career advancement, was not for me. Therefore, U-turn and fast-forward to today, I am currently enrolled on the first cohort of the “lifETIME

3D breast cancer-on- a-chip model

By LifETIME CDT Student: Yashna Chabria (NUI Galway)   While patients diagnosed with early stage breast cancer have a good outcome, it is more challenging to treat once the tumor has spread and so novel therapies are urgently required. Usually, the first step in breast cancer spread is to the adjacent lymph nodes. An increase

Animal-free diabetic foot wound model for drug discovery: an exciting challenge!

By LifETIME CDT Student: Mirella Ejiugwo (NUI Galway) The lives of hundreds of millions of people are devastated by diabetes across the globe. Unfortunately, someone dies every seven seconds because of diabetes or one of its complications. Specifically, type 2 diabetes, most common in obese people, is characterized by high glucose levels in the blood