HOW TO? Technologies used on clinical samples webinar series

Session 1: Role of the pulmonary vasculature in lung diseases

21 September, 2023
18:00-19:00 CET

Chair: Dr. Abilash Ravi (Leiden, Netherlands)
Speakers: Dr. Alexandra Christin Racanelli (United States)

Educational need:

Vascular endothelial cells are increasingly being recognised in regeneration and repair of various organs. Many lung diseases are associated with changes in the pulmonary vascular compartment, which may also contribute to impaired repair responses. In addition, the (pulmonary) vascular compartment is also more and more incorporated in advanced lung cell culture models. It is therefore important to cover the role of pulmonary vasculature in organ compartment and discuss potential therapeutic opportunities.

Educational aim:

This presentation will provide an introduction into pulmonary endothelial cell biology in health and disease. In addition examples of endothelial involvement in disease development, but also repair will be discussed. The speaker has performed research into the link between the pulmonary vascular compartment and dysfunctional repair in emphysema.

Topics:

• Endothelial cell biology
• Role of pulmonary vasculature in lung diseases
• Role of pulmonary vasculature in repair

Format:

This will be in a lecture format.

Learning outcomes:

Understand the role of vasculature in lung health and disease. The audience will learn how changes in the vascular compartment can impact organ function and may drive disease or defective repair. This knowledge will widen the horizon of researchers and clinicians to integrate this compartment in their research thinking and approaches on how this compartment may provide new therapeutic opportunities.

Register now: session 1

Session 2: Insights into HRCT-based radiomics for disease characterisation and outcome prediction in lung diseases

19 October, 2023
18:00-19:00 CET

Chair: Dr. Nahal Mansouri (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Speakers: Dr. Janine Gote-Schniering (Bern, Switzerland)

Educational need:

Recently, high-dimensional image analysis, termed “radiomics”, has opened novel avenues for imaging-based disease subtyping and outcome prediction. Radiomic features are computationally retrieved, quantitative data derived from medical images which describe the tissue in terms of its intensity, texture and advanced statistical properties. Their unique and added value compared with visual or other quantitative imaging methodologies lies in the ability to capture tissue phenotypes on different spatial scales ranging from the radiological/macroscopic to the molecular/microscopic level, which adds another dimension. Thereby, they provide novel and complementary information compared with clinical reports, laboratory and functional tests.

Educational aim:

• Understand the relevance for radiomics in disease characterisation and monitoring of progression
• Learn which steps are required to assess potential of HRCT based radiomics

Topics:

• Radiomics
• Imaging based disease subtyping
• Interstitial Lung Diseases

Format:

Workshop with interactive quizzes, Q&A with audience, presentation of a clinical study on HRCT based radiomics for disease characterisation and outcome prediction in ILD.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand the relevance for radiomics in disease characterisation and monitoring of progression
• Learn which steps are required to assess potential of HRCT based radiomics
• Assess whether image based diseases subtyping may be used in their patient cohort.

Register now: session 2

Session 3: Using human induced pluripotent stem cells for lung research

16 November, 2023
18:00-19:00 CET

Chair: Dr. Ruth Olmer (Germany)
Speakers: Prof. Killian Hurley (Co. Meath, Ireland)

Educational need:

Direct hiPSC differentiation toward lung cells is increasingly applied in research and forms an excellent tool to develop patient-specific models. In addition, gene editing strategies are applied to these cell cultures to model rare genetic diseases. Differentiation of hiPSCs toward lung can still be time consuming and labour intensive, thereby potentially discouraging researchers to start using them. This webinar could provide an introduction to hiPSC culture for lung research and show how valuable the application of this technology is for patient-relevant research.

Educational aim:

The audience will learn the process of differentiating lung (epithelial) cells from hiPSC. The benefits and challenges will be discussed of using these cells in your research and in addition the potential for patient-specific modelling will be discussed.

Topics:

• Differentiation of lung tissue-relevant cell-types from hiPSC
• CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing of hiPSC
• Patient-specific and disease modelling

Format:

This will be in a lecture format.

Learning outcomes:

Understand the benefits of hiPSC culture for patient-relevant research and baseline knowledge on how to start implementing hiPSC research in their own laboratories. They will be made aware of relevant courses to follow and key investigators that can be contacted for input.

Register now: session 3

Session 4: Extracellular vesicles in the lung fluids from isolation to analysis

21 December, 2023
18:00-19:00 CET

Chair: Dr. Nahal Mansouri (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Speakers: Prof. Dr. Bernd Schmeck (Marburg, Germany)

Educational need:

The EV biology is a state-of-the art and progressing field with high impact on diagnostics, uses as biomarkers and even therapeutics. Absence of harmonized isolation strategies and downstream characterisation and analysis of these vesicles make this field more challenging.

Educational aim:

• Importance of EVs in healthy and diseased lung
• Learn isolation techniques for isolation of EVs from human and murine lung fluids
• Get acquainted with downstream analysis and characterisation of lung EVs in both human and murine pulmonary secretions such as bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)

Topics:

• Importance of EVs in health and lung disease
• EV isolation and characterisation from BAL
• EV analysis and functional assays

Format:

This will be in a workshop format, so speakers need to interact with audience through quizzes, educational cards, discuss the challenges in Q&A format, use audio-visual teaching material.

Learning outcomes:

• Audience will learn different methods in EV isolation from both human and murine BAL
• They will learn to characterise EVs and perform further downstream analysis based on the specific readout and the biological question

Register now: session 4

Register now: full series

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