Doctoral Programme in Development and Regeneration (DEVREG) and Gendered Innovation Alliance

Participants:

• Christian G. Riedel, PhD  Karolinska Institutet “Discovering and targeting the mechanisms that regulate how fast we age.”
• Professor Tamar Tchkonia, Ph.D. Mayo Clinic, USA “Senescent cell burden and senolytic drugs: focus on translational studies.”
• Professor Staffan Strömblad Karolinska Institutet ”Control of the senescence barrier in breast cancer via PAK4 signalling.”

 Brilliant speakers gathered to share their ideas that could propel us into a better tomorrow.

This event created and presented by Andrew Hennigan, offered the opportunity to learn 3 essential skills that everyone should master:

• how to build an influencing network
• how to speak effectively
• how to write persuasively

Frans Johansson - author of The Medici Effect & CEO of The Medici Group, invited the audience to step into the intersection, a place where different ideas from different disciplines, industries, and cultures collide to create innovation.

Leading physicians and veterinarians turn to the natural world as a source of insights to accelerate innovation in health. This event on September 3 offered attendees to observe and participate in bio-inspired research focused on two major challenges in women’s health: Cardiovascular Disease and Reproductive health, including fertility Preservation.

A nudge is best described as a friendly – not compulsive – push in the right direction. We invited Katharina Paoli, one of the most well-renowned nudging experts in Sweden to find new ways encourage people to make conscious choices and make it easier to do what’s right. Can we learn from this when doing preclinical or clinical research related to medicine, being in the lab all day or meeting patients?

This conference, supported by the DEVREG programme, brought together different research groups within the field of regenerative medicine at KI. The program included scientific activities (oral presentations, posters and invited speakers) and time for mingling and interaction between research groups.

We travelled to Wonderland with our partner TEDx Stockholm – a place of limitless possibilities, to awaken our imagination, question our beliefs and step out of the norm. Wonderland is a place where assumptions are challenged and imagination is ignited. The journey took place on November 24th at Radisson Blu Waterfront.

A workshop that offered the opportunity to learn more about:

Stem cells and development (mESC, hESC, hiPSC) | Organoids from pluripotent stem cells | Recreating organs from pluripotent stem cells |Organoids in neurological disease modeling | Cells and materials in regenerative medicine.

Our INTRICARE EU Horizon 2020 Marie Curie ITN course covered some of the latest advances in cardiovascular medicine: from basic to translational research with added value for transferable skills and on the implementation of the sex and gender perspectives in preclinical and clinical research.

The first KI Devreg Salon of the year was held 19th of April. We invited Ingrid Berglund - a UNDP (UN Development Programme) representative to guide us through the sustainable delelopment goals and some practical applications relevant at KI.

This TEDx-inspired salon about The Education Revolution was held on November 17 - an event for course leaders, teachers, students, researchers and everyone else interested in innovative approaches for effective teaching and learning.

At our third salon event, we gained a better understanding of how studying and mimicking nature as part of medical research could lead to important breakthroughs and new innovations. 

On September 4, Helena Ledmyr from Forskom/INCF provided our students tips on how to communicate smarter to a wider audience.

In May, writer and journalist Agneta Lagerkrantz kicked off the first Salon by sharing her deep insights on the topic of compassion followed by Thandie Newtons inspiring TED talk on "otherness".

For the 6th time the student-organised interdisciplinary conference “From Basics To Clinics”, supported by the DEVREG programme, was held. Our brilliant student representative Ayla De Paepe's talk about the importance of gender in research and gender equality in academia was very appreciated as she won the prize for the best talk!