BLUES holds General Assembly meeting in Genoa (Italy)
They say third time's a charm - and while we cannot complain about our previous in-person meetings, we can say that this one was, indeed, charming (as if Italy could be anything but...). On 11-13 February, we gathered in one of the country's most vibrant cities to update each other on project developments and devise a plan to get closer to our objectives in the months to follow. We were kindly welcomed at the Università degli Studi di Genova by our colleague Marina Pozzolini, who made sure the meeting would run smoothly and we would be in good spirits.
We used the opportunity to be next to each other for our 3-day meeting to discuss tasks more extensively and delve deeper into our work, acknowledging our successes and addressing our concerns and limitations. We kicked off the meeting with a rundown of everything we did in the project since September, when we had our previous meeting in Iceland, followed by a guest presentation delivered by Olivier Thomas, Professor at the University of Galway (Ireland) and the coordinator of our sister project, COMBO, who introduced us to his project's mission and launched an open invitation to explore potential collaborations between us. We were also lucky enough to have Federica Liguori explain how the Cellex bioreactors work - then she, together with a few of our colleagues, organised a demo of these bioreactors, using cells of Geodia cydonium. We ended our first day with a guided tour, explaining the history of the medieval city, but also exploring its more recent history (exemplified by the magnificent palaces belonging to noble families on Via Garibaldi).
Photo credit: Roger Meisal, Møreforskning AS
On the second day, we gathered again at the UG premises, and we kicked off with a super enticing presentation on sponge microbiomes by Prof. Torsten Thomas, our colleague from "down under" at University of New South Wales in Sydney. Then, we divided into two focus groups: one working on creating cell lines, and the other one working on scale-up and downstream processing. Within the first focus group, we discussed about the different approaches we employed for culture media development and cell type characterisation, among others, and the limitations that come with each (and suggested ways to overcome these). In the second group, we focused on the parametres that are important to scaling up production and the criteria to select cells, we explored the efectiveness of the different methods to recover and purify metabolites produced by marine invertebrate cells, and we weighed some approaches to generate compound production. And as they say good things come to those who wait, after a busy day, we went together to enjoy some of Italy's regional staples (hint: lots of pesto included!)
Finally, on the third day of the project meeting, we moved away from the more scientific part towards the administrative one, with two workshops dedicated to dissemination and communication (aiming to help partners maximise the visibility of their work through the BLUES dedicated channels), and scientific and technical reporting, respectively, in view of our upcoming and first reporting period. We rounded off the day with a clear list of "to do's" until our next meeting... and a lot of enthusiasm for what's to come! And we invite you to follow us on this exciting and humbling journey!
