The SRAP-IEAP-Queensland meeting held on the 31st of May was the first meeting of this year. Both old and new members joined this meeting via Zoom to discuss SRAP local activity and define future projects and workshops within the association in which members were interested. We will soon be organizing a seminar on postdoctoral positions and opportunities in both Australia and Spain. This workshop will be held via Zoom for all those who are interested.
But this was not the only event in SRAP-IEAP-Queensland. The first Research Bites of the year (in QLD) held on the 25th of June was a great success. Two SRAP-IEAP members, Nati and Teresa, presented their research in tissue engineering and volcanology. Both talks were fascinating, and therefore we leave here a summary! For more information, please contact the authors.
Natividad Gomez Cerezo (UQ)
Have you ever thought about how many times a day you move your hand? Scapholunate ligament injuries are widespread and significantly worsen the quality of life so that many of our daily activities are severely limited.
One of our projects is preparing 3D PET scaffolds that could help in the regeneration of this ligament. This material has excellent mechanical properties to restore the tissue.
One of the strategies we follow is to seed cells in spheroids to colonize the scaffold and eventually form healthy tissue to replace the implant.
This is just one of the applications of 3D printing that we can use to regenerate tissue.
Teresa Ubide Garralda (UQ)
Why do volcanoes erupt? The answer lies within… and although we cannot access it directly, we can interrogate deep crystals brought to the surface in past eruptions. Using novel analytical methods such as laser ablation coupled to mass spectrometry, we can build up a picture of the distribution of chemical elements in volcanic crystals and determine what processes lead a volcano to erupt, at what depth, and how long before the eruption begins at the surface. In this way, we build a volcano model that helps volcano monitoring in the future.
Carmen Salvador and Ana Rubio, members of the SRAP-IEAP general board, also attended this event to discuss the association’s activity at the national level and the possibilities to participate as active members of the association.
