Prima Nexus sponsored tissue culture, CRISPR and tissue engineering meetings at UKM and AMDI, USM, in 2017

From the Prima Nexus archive: a look back at May to November 2017.

KUALA LUMPUR, 7 November 2017: Prima Nexus sponsored TERMSYMPO 2017, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Postgraduate Symposium, held by the Tissue Engineering Centre of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) at the Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Centre (PPUKM), in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, on 7 November 2017. Earlier in the year it had sponsored the centre's three-day 3D Tissue Culture Workshop in May, and two hands-on workshops at the Advanced Medical and Dental Institute (AMDI), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), in Bertam: one on CRISPR genome editing in September and one on mammalian cell culture in October.

Three days of 3D tissue culture

The Tissue Engineering Centre (TEC) ran the workshop from 23 to 25 May, from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm each day, at the centre on the 12th floor of the Clinical Block, UKM Medical Centre. Four presentations covered primary human cells in tissue engineering; isolating, culturing and characterising primary cells; scaffold fabrication and 3D culture; and imaging for 3D culture. Between them, longer sessions at the bench put each step into practice.

From skin tissue to scaffolds and imaging

On the first day participants processed skin tissue and prepared a collagen hydrogel scaffold. On the second, working in four groups, they detached cells with trypsin for serial culture, froze cells for storage and made PLGA scaffolds by electrospinning. On the last day they thawed and seeded the frozen cells and maintained the cultures, and a final session used an image analyser to measure how cells grow and move without disturbing them. The programme also included a demonstration of aseptic technique, the preparation of buffers and culture media, and a laboratory tour.

CRISPR and cell culture at AMDI, and TERMSYMPO

At the Animal Research Complex of AMDI, USM, in Bertam, Penang, Prima Nexus sponsored the Hands-on CRISPR Genome Editing Workshop from 11 to 13 September and the Mammalian Cell Culture Workshop 2017 from 24 to 27 October. On 7 November, the Tissue Engineering Centre held TERMSYMPO 2017 for postgraduate researchers at the Faculty of Medicine, PPUKM. Prima Nexus was a sponsor of all four events, as it had been of the centre's primary tissue culture workshop in November 2016. More photos are on the 3D Tissue Culture Workshop's event page. Today, researchers who work with stem cells and tissue models can come to Prima Nexus for cell quality control, characterisation and cell-model development, listed under stem cell and organoid research on our research capabilities page.