Lab events
Lab reunion brunch at Darwin College 2023
July 2023
A happy morning at Darwin College to celebrate our lab and its current and former members. Dylan Siriwardena and his family came all the way from Canada for Dylan’s PhD graduation ceremony, Makis, former master student and now PhD student at UCL joined the festivities and we had the pleasure of Dr. Erin Slatery, former PhD student, joining with her partner Geraldine Jowett for a relaxed brunch.
Clara Munger wins the PDN Symposium Image Competition 2023
April 2023
Clara Munger’s image montage “Warhol wannabe” is the proud winner of the PDN symposium image competition. The image shows arrayed confocal images of our stem cell-based spheroid models recapitulating amnion and embryonic disc formation. The spheroids present two distinct morphologies, corresponding to the postimplantation epiblast, a columnar epithelium, and the amniotic ectoderm, a squamous epithelium. Both types of structures are featured repetitively to illustrate the high-throughput potential of stem cell-based embryo models.
Primary school SCIENCE WEEK project – “State matter transitions”
March 2023
This years outreach project was “State matter transitions” during Science week at St. Albans Primary School. Thorsten explained the size of atoms, illustrated state matter transitions with dry ice and, most importantly, generated excitement for science in Years 4, 5 and 6!
Chen et al., 2022 shortlisted for the Outstanding Paper Prize
March 2023
Our trophoblast paper “An integrated atlas of human placental development delineates essential regulators of trophoblast stem cells” has been shortlisted as one of the most exciting works published in Development.
Please find a link below to the editorial announcing the shortlist and overall winners, including a brief quote from each editor on why they chose the paper they shortlisted:
Croquet, Pimms and Dinner
August 2022
To celebrate our work and recent achievements on spatial transcriptome profiling, embryo metabolism and microfluidic amnion models, we spent a relaxing afternoon playing croquet, sipping Pimms and having dinner together.
Spatial transcriptome profiling of the implantating primate embryo
June 2022
We are delighted that our main paper on primate embryogenesis in vivo has come out in Nature! After implantation, the pluripotent cells of the embryo diversify and arrange themselves to form the future body axis. Human embryos of such early postimplantation stages are inaccessible due to ethical considerations, which has limited our understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling embryo patterning. We have now opened this black box of primate development and decoded the molecular framework of non-human primates in the uterus. Our work reveals the earliest hallmarks of head and tail regions in the embryo and determines the essential signalling cues controlling embryogenesis in stem-cell-based embryo models.
The artist creating this illustration was Erin Slatery, massive thanks to her!
To explain the spatial embryo profiling technique and our key findings, we created a short video.
The results from our research are of fundamental importance for tackling pregnancy loss, a clearer understanding of birth defects and to advance stem-cell-based regenerative approaches.
4th Boroviak lab retreat in North Wales
3rd – 6th November 2021
We started our 4th lab retreat at Darwin College, where we enjoyed an afternoon of excellent talks. In the early morning of the second day, we went for a splash in the river Dee, Llangollen in North Wales. We got a chance to “surf” on the wafes, flooded the boat and some of us “fell” into the water. More great talks at our hotel in Llangollen on the third day – and then we headed to Cambridge.
MIND OVER CHATTER – PODCAST – What is the future of reproduction?
16th April 2021
Thorsten E. Boroviak speaks about our research and the future of reproduction in this podcast produced by the Mind-over-chatter team! The episode discusses what the consequences of novel reproductive technologies are likely to be, and how they will impact the future of human reproduction.
Listen via the link below:
https://mind-over-chatter.captivate.fm/episode/what-is-the-future-of-reproduction
Launch of the Boroviak lab TWITTER account
16th April 2021
We are excited to announce the launch of our Boroviak_lab TWITTER account. All lab members have access and will be posting to share our latest papers, events and videos.
Follow us – https://twitter.com/boroviak_lab
3rd Boroviak lab retreat via ZOOM
November 2020
This year we held our annual lab retreat via zoom due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We enjoyed a full day of exciting talks and – for the first time – invited our very own key note speaker Prof. Jennifer Nichols from the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute! Jenny kept us company for most of the day and we had tremendous fun. The programme also featured a science art competition with a £50 cash prize – which was won by Dylan Siriwardena and his “Trophoblast Moonlighting”. Well deserved!
Lockdown in the Boroviak lab
March – July 2020
We are happy to announce our return to the bench – at reduced capacity, but nevertheless back to what we are most excited about and what we do best. Regular ZOOM meeting have helped us to stay in touch and work effectively together during lockdown. Virtual meetings will remain an integral part of lab life post Covid19, in particular to welcome and get to know new lab members.
The Boroviak lab Punschstand!
29th November 2019
A happy hour sponsored by the Boroviak lab with Mulled wine, ‘Jagatee’ and Austrian Christmas bakery to kick-start the festive season. The local Yeti could not resist and made an appearance…
2nd lab retreat in Padua
21st November 2019
This year our annual lab retreat took us to Padua in Italy. We visited the group of Prof. Graziano Martello at the University of Padua for a joint lab retreat on rodent and primate models of stem cell biology. Highlights included excellent talks, the thermal spring, a visit to the oldest anatomical theatre in the world and plenty of Aperol Spritz…
Punting on the Cam
6th October 2019
Exploring the river bank towards Grantchester…
Pancakes and Margaritas
18th July 2019
Together with the Sferruzzi-Perri lab, the Boroviak lab organised a sponsored Happy-Hour for the department featuring pancakes and margaritas!
Strategic Research Initiative (SRI) on REPRODUCTION networking event
13th May 2019
The Centre for Trophoblast Research organises SRI networking events on reproduction featuring flash talks and open dialogues across disciplines. Thorsten E. Boroviak and Prof. Sarah Franklin from Sociology had a lively discussion on various topics, including the origin of life, the 14-day rule, synthetic embryology and the ethical challenges of human genome editing.
PDN Symposium
22nd March 2019
The annual postdoc and PhD symposium in our department was a huge success. Sophie, Erin and Dylan were on the organising committee and helped to make it all happen. Lots of prizes for our lab members and time to visit the photo booth with colleagues at the Symposium dinner-party.
The proud winners of poster/presentation prizes of the Boroviak lab.
Photo booth. No explanation required.
And again…
Primary school SCIENCE WEEK project – “The digestive system”
18th March 2019
It was an exciting day the children of St. Albans Catholic Primary School and members of the Boroviak lab. Bringing bags of biscuits, bananas, plenty of coke, plastic bags and tights, we demonstrated how food is broken up in the digestive system – and what is left when the body is finished… Sessions also included light microscopy to take a look at the different organs of the digestive tract, thanks to the generous support of our department.
Microscopy (left) and making poo (right) with the children of St. Albans.
Setting up for the next session…
Boroviak lab ” Punsch Stand “
30th November 2018
Inspired by the Austrian tradition of drinking mulled wine in the run up to Christmas, we put our own recipe to the test and were serving “Gluehwein” and “Jagatee” to the department. And we had invited a special guest…
Dylan and Santa Claus preparing “Gluehwein” (left) and a jolly Igor (right).
Guests from PDN…
Secondary school students visiting the lab
16th November 2018
As part of our outreach programme, we invited high school students to explore our lab. Events like this provide them with an opportunity to experience a research environment first hand and hopefully encourages them to follow their curiosity and passion in their professional careers.
Checking out GFP-positive marmoset embryonic stem cells (left) and burning through a dilution series of alcohol with the lab head (right).
1st Lab Retreat in Oxford
2nd November 2018
We are proud to present impressions from the first Boroviak lab retreat in Oxford. The programme featured visiting collaborators, pubs, the Ashmolean museum and an intensive day of presentations, discussion and thinking in the Old Combination Room at Balliol College.
Curiosities form the Ashmolean museum including Guy Fawkes’ lantern (left) and glass art reminding us of our embryo profiling approaches (right).
Beautiful Oxford by night (left) and Connor presenting his ideas on transcriptional networks in hypoblast specification (right).
Night out: Experiments on mixed alcohol consumption at Six in Cambridge (left) and jolly times at the ADC theatre bar (right)…
BBC World Service – CrowdScience
September 2018
Thorsten E. Boroviak, lab members and our colleagues here the Centre for Trophoblast Research featuring in the BBC World Service Crowd Science programme “Can we make an artificial womb?”. Listen to the podcast via the link below.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswvxh