Career Week in Copenhagen University

The second week of February 2016 was announced as Career Week in Copenhagen International School. Students had to find desirable place to working practice and contact to Workplace Supervisor. Chloe Wheeler choose Department of Biomedical Sciences of Copenhagen University and expressed a wish to spend a few days among staff and get an idea about the work in Medicine Institute.

In these two days staff talked to Chloe about the work here, demonstrated some of experiments and gave some general scientific information which could help Chloe to understand some basic mechanisms inside human bodies. Anastasiia Neganova gave talks about REVAMMAD project itself, her secondment in Berlin, collaboration between scientists and also about eye’s physiology and methods which help to investigate it.

Sofie’s Thorsen Erhvervspraktik in Copenhagen University

Sofie Thorsen

Current week is the week of Erhvervspraktik for 9th grade students in Denmark when they get an experience of training in the place where they would like to continue their education/work. 15-years old Sofie Thorsen expressed the wish to spend this week working with Section of Renal and Vascular Research of Department of Biomedical Sciences (BMI) in Copenhagen University. Our group prepared intensive program for Sofie’s Erhvervspraktik. She attended experiment on rat’s kidney in our lab, experiment with myograph and got a general idea about modeling of blood vessels and vascular networks.

Anastasiia Neganova gave talks about basis of Laser speckle Imaging (LSI) technique, development of vascular networks, modelling of myogenic response gradient in microvascular networks, application of LSI technique to visualization of blood flow in the rat’s retina and chick’s chorioallantoic membrane. Anastasiia also gave the talk about REVAMMAD project when she explained the main goals of the project and the ways how it works.

In the end of Erhvervspraktik, Sofie shared her impressions about this experience: “I think it was very exciting to hear about the REVAMMAD project, what it was all about and what each person is working with. After the introduction to the project Anastasiia told me generally about the vascular networks. She also told me much more about her own work with modelling – especially the part about LSI and myogenic response I found very exciting. At first it was a bit difficult for me to understand all those new words in English which I didn´t even know in Danish. But Anastasiia explained it very well so I was able to understand most of it and I learned so many new and interesting things! Besides, Anastasiia answered all my questions about being a Ph.D. student as well. Being with Anastasiia and hearing all these things about the project and how it is to write a Ph.D. has definitely made me much more interested in scientific work and I think it would be very cool if I could have the opportunity to write a Ph.D. myself in the future“.

REVAMMAD presence in ARVO Denver 2015

Four ESR (Pedro, Jeff, Georgios and Sergio) recently caught up quite far from their regular investigation environment.

ARVO is considered to be the biggest and most important event in Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, gathering scientists and clinicians from every single corner of the globe. This year, the meeting was celebrated in Denver (CO, U.S.), and therefore some our ESR didn’t miss the chance to join it.

REVAMMAD presence in the congress was possible through both, posters and oral presentations, spread among the congress days (from 2^nd-7^th of May). Within a purely interactive atmosphere, ESRs were able to promote networking and proactive discussion in each of their fields, same time making friends, meeting worldwide colleagues and having some fun.

DNA structure was likely discovered in a lab bench, but was in a bar where Watson and Crick had a further exploration soaked with beer.

Fundus photography: practice session

Giovanni Ometto ( @emailgiovanni ) and I ( @matteoaletti ) are in Lincoln for our secondment. We had a fundus camera sitting in our office for some time and we decided to take this opportunity to learn how to use it. Francesco Calivà ( @fcaliva2014 ) already had some experience with the camera and taught us how to take fundus photographs.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

 Using the machine is not as easy as it looks. However, after quite a lot of practice we managed to take good shots of each other’s retina, like this one:

and this one:

..sorry! This is just Francesco’s latest recipe: the Retinal Pizza.

REVAMMAD on the news!!

The interview published on “Giornale di Sicilia”, a newspaper with more than 60 thousands readers per day, was a great opportunity to promote REVAMMAD.
“I am proud of us for what we are doing and for the attention we are receiving! People can see the potential of our project!”

 

REVAMMAD Outreach @ ArtVerona BET ON UTOPIA performance by Fagarazzi-Zuffellato

On Thursday and Friday 9th and 10th of October, Matteo (@matteoaletti), Francesco (@fcaliva2014), Evangelia, Georgios (@geleonti) and I had the pleasure to take part in BET ON UTOPIA, a performance by friends and artists I-Chen Zuffellato and Andrea Fagarazzi. BET ON UTOPIA is a project presented at Fuori Bienanale‘s Indipendents05 for ArtVerona art fair.

About the performance, translated FagarazziZuffellato’s website:
BET ON UTOPIA is born in a time when the main concern of common worries is riding through an economic crisis that unveils also the deepest wound of an extremely rigid and static society. BET ON UTOPIA is a performing platform that tries to find new strategies to get the public engaged with arts. Every day of the performance includes talks and sessions with experimental researchers from any field. The project takes place in a green area that hosts guests and performers. The visitors would find four tables for four projects per day, where they can sit at and meet a representative of a project for 15 minutes. The visitors would be given a passbook with which they would be able to fictionally sponsor one or more projects in UTOPIAS currency.

Being Matteo, Evangelia and myself in Lincoln with Francesco and Georgios for our secondment it was fairly easy to partecipate at the performance through video-conferencing means and describe REVAMMAD project to the visitors. Talking about our research to the public of an art fair was challenging and enriching as both the public and us were exploring a completely new environment.

BETONUTOPIAprogram_1

BET ON UTOPIA poster

ESRs in the meeting room during the outreach activity

Giovanni, Matteo and Francesco on the screen at ArtVerona

The table of the REVAMMAD project at ArtVerona

Presenting REVAMMAD to a visitor of ArtVerona

The performace

The space of the performance

Early Stage Researcher 1.1: Matteo Aletti

My name is Matteo Aletti and I am from Italy where I studied Mathematical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano.

Mathematical Engineer is a relatively young course which combines theoretical mathematics with computer science to solve engineering problems.

I joined REVAMMAD project in January 2014 from Paris at the INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique) under the supervision of Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau and Damiano Lombardi in the REO team.

Within the project I’m working on the mathematical modeling of the micro-circulation.

In the human retina it is possible to take many different measurements mostly based on imaging techniques, but still there are some hidden quantities that are difficult to be measured, for example pressure and/or blood flow can be very difficult to measure.

Thanks to mathematical modelling it is possible to perform computer simulations to enrich the available data and to get access to such unavailable quantities.

In particular, in a very first phase of my PhD I reconstructed a three dimensional representation of the retinal network starting from two dimensional segmented images. With such a realistic geometry it is now possible to run haemodynamics simulations and to estimate fluid dynamics parameters, like flow rates for instance.

Currently I am designing a model to describe the interactions between the blood flow and the arteriolar vessels in such a way that it is possible to take into account more complex phenomena like auto-regulation which is an active response of the arteriolar wall to a sudden increase in the systemic pressure.

Anastasiia about the First REVAMMAD training event

First REVAMMAD training event was placed in Lincoln Univensity from November 24th to December 6th, 2013. It was good experience and opportunity to create unique network of young scientists, who interested in research of the retina.

Very rich 2 week program included lectures on modelling, retinal physiology and diseases, as well as image analysis. Additionally, all ESRs presented themselves and their projects. From my point of view, even if you have a particular speciality it’s good to get to know something beyond the scope of your subject of inquiry.

Moreover, we have some unformal group events, where we could socialize, discuss our work and plan possible collaborations. All ESRs and PLs visited York and at the last days, together, developed the logo for REVAMMAD project.

EARLY STAGE RESEARCHER 3.2: SERGIO CRESPO

Here Sergio. Coming from Spain, I have ended contributing to REVAMMAD project holding the ESR3.2 position.

As a biologist, I have always been concerned about biomedical current needs and how projects such as REVAMMAD are strictly necessary to address problems at the clinic that makes people’s life difference. When I knew about REVAMMAD’s goals, I was hardly encouraged by my own aims to become part of the team and contribute to generate solutions to problems in ophthalmology.

We develop one of the partnerships from Berlin, Germany, at the Charité Hospital. Under the supervision of Prof. Joussen (head of the ophthalmology clinic) and Prof. Strauß (head of the experimental ophthalmology research department) I am developing my PhD thesis and current research flow work.

My role inside REVAMMAD lies closer to what is called basic research more than something with straight transference into the clinic. However, the motto we have is to generate something that at the end will have a real application and use on patients. We all partners pursue a big common goal inside the project, but as long as my expertise remains close to genetics (MSc in Genetics and Cell Biology), we approach our retinal studies with animal models that reproduce retinopathy diseases.

To approach retinal vascular diseases it is necessary to adopt different strategies to understand the mechanisms of the pathology and transfer that knowledge into practical clinical tools. Vasculature in the retina changes under pathological conditions. However, vessels are not alone and we have to understand the disease as a complex puzzle where every piece has its role. Some other cell types besides the ones that compound vessels might be involved in terms of disease, as it is the case of neurons and microglia. Microglia belongs to the immune system at the retina, but its role in disease it is not clearly understood. Current models of imaging and algorithm analysis are pursuing early diagnosis regarding the dynamics and structure of the vasculature. In our basic medical research, we aim to switch the disease correlation into a new concept that involves vessels inside the neurovascular unit, where microglia might play a role, turning the current analysis model into one more complex and defined status.

 

 

Early Stage Researcher 1.3: Anastasiia Neganova

My name is Anastasiia Neganova, I’ve  defended my Master of Science thesis in Saratov State University (Russia) in 2012. My scientific background is biophysics and optics. Now I’m ESR 1.3 within REVAMMAD Project and my project title is “Modeling retinal arteriolar vasomotion”. I’m working on my PhD thesis in Copenhagen University under Jens Christian Brings Jacobsen supervision since October 2013.

I’ve decided to participate in REVAMMAD project because today cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are ” the number one cause of death globally” (according Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2011) and retina is really amazing subject of inquiry for investigation of different vascular mechanisms (that allow vessels auto regulate their diameter according permanently changing demands) and blood flow under normal or pathological conditions. Moreover, such educational program, which is aimed to train young scientists and help them to create new scientific communities is a great opportunity for each of us.

Main goals of my PhD:

1) Construction of a new improved macroscopic model of the vascular network

2) Assigning vascular properties characteristic for retinal vessels and construction of a virtual retinal network

3) Application of the network models to estimate hemodynamic and functional parameters

4) Simulation of arterial vasomotion in retinal networks

Copenhagen University Campus