Cells into Organs: The Final Run

This Network of Excellence (FP6) will finish om March 31st 2009. The coordinator and the project management would like to thank all researchers involved for their hard work and wishes to congratulate them on the excellent research that has been done.

We are confident that the network will live on in new integrated projects and working relationships.

All the best,

Tony, Raymond and Martje

Functional genomics for development and disease of mesodermal organ systems

The Cells into Organs network has organisied a meeting on "Tissue Specification and Organogenesis" at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 4th-6th February 2009. This network (see www.cellsintoorgans.net) includes many labs working on embryology in Europe, with an emphasis on mesoderm and its derivatives. In 2007, a first meeting focussed on early development. The meeting, focused on cellular and molecular aspects of tissue specification, addressing questions of cell fate determination, tissue development and morphogenesis. Speakers included members of the network and invited speakers from outside. Short talks were given by participants, selected on the basis of their abstracts, by the scientific organising board.  The meeting was relatively small (< 200 participants) with opportunities for informal discussion. Participants have presented posters. Visit the symposium website at: http://www.symposium2009.cellsintoorgans.net/

The project aims to elucidate molecular and cellular processes underlying specification and differentiation of mesodermally derived organ systems. This knowledge provides the basis for organ and tissue engineering and will enable us to identify genes which function in building a specific organ or in a particular aspect of embryogenesis. The brochure of Cells into Organs is still available! Send an e-mail to m.m.jespers at biology.leidenuniv.nl

Coordinating and integrating the activities in this network is being done in several ways. Formally through management activities as Joint Ph.D. projects, arrangements for the sharing resources between the network members and cutting out of duplication of research. But more informal tools are just as important. Building trust by working together, meeting eachother and creating a community, are essential for the durable integration of the network. Regular meetings (annual meetings, symposia), training activities (workshops) and even dissemination activities (Science Cafés, lectures, etc) are forging an integrated network. The proof of the integration lies in the collaborative projects. 

School exchanges

 This project is supported through Priority 1 (Life Sciences, Genomics and Biotechnology for Health) of European Union's FP6, Contract number: LSHM-CT-2003-504468 for 5 years from the 1st April 2004 and co-ordinated by Dr. Antony John Durston from the Institute of Biology in Leiden.