Landing in the Drosophila World – Video tutorials
This an introductory course on work with fruit fly as a model organism created by CONGENTO. Although the course includes a strong practical component, tutorials were developed to allow remote access to some of the course’s main contents.
Check it here!
CONGENTALKS
CONGENTO working-groups will prepare monthly talks to address different topics regarding genetically tractable organisms, showcasing innovative services provided by the infrastructure or inviting external speakers. These talks will be free and open to anyone who registers. To be informed about the next talk, check our upcoming training activities.
Partnership with DGRC
CONGENTO established a partnership with DGRC, in order to provide to researchers in Portugal easier access to the DGRC Gold Clone Collection. Orders should be placed through DGRC, but CONGENTO will act as a local distributor, saving time, customs constraints, and shipping costs to the researchers.
CONGENTO Projects for Master’s Theses
If you are enrolled in an MSc in life sciences, have a drive for research and would like to develop your thesis in CONGENTO’s state-of-the-art facilities, check the opportunities we offer:
– CRISPR Gene Editing Technology Projects
– Zebrafish larvae genotyping optimization
– The impact of temperature in Zebrafish left-right development
– In vivo electroporation as a delivery method for generation of transgenic and mutant zebrafish
1st DevBioMed Symposium
Jointly organized by the Champalimaud Foundation and the Portuguese Society for Developmental Biology, this meeting got together researchers and clinicians to discuss the crossroads between Developmental Biology and Medicine. Around 300 people participated in this full-day event. CONGENTO supported the event, contributing with “prizes” for the best questions from the audience.
Openness in Animal Research in Portugal
More than 50 persons from several academic institutions and companies got together at Champalimaud on November 20th to listen to a journalist (Sara Sá, Visão), a researcher (Susana Lima, Champalimaud), a Science Communicator (Ana Mena, IGC) and the European Animal Research Association (Kirk Leech) presenting their visions about the importance of transparency in animal research. There was time for questions of the audience and for a round table, well-taken opportunities for an enlightening exchange of ideas.
This event was co-organized by EARA, CONGENTO and QuantOCancer, and counted with the support of FENS and SFN.
iGonad Workshop
In collaboration with experts from Nepa Gene and Sonidel (and with the kind support of Lusopalex and Zeiss), 10 persons had the opportunity to explore this new method for gene-edition in mice, a more practic, faster and less invasive procedure, totally aligned with the 3Rs policy.
JAX Seminars @iMM
For the second time in 2019, CONGENTO organized with The Jackson Laboratories another seminar session, this time focused on Humanized Mice.
– Immune System Humanized Mice for Preclinical Research – by Ralph Gareus, JAX Director Business Development – Europe
– Sophisticated Humanized Mouse Models to Investigate the Mechanisms of Cancer Immunotherapy – by James Keck, Senior Director of Innovation and Product Development (he has basically developed this platform and has a lot of hands-on operational expertise as well).
More than 40 researchers, from academia and private companies, were present and took the chance to clarify some questions with JAX specialists. More to come in 2020!
1st NMS Biosafety Workshop
A workshop focused on Biosafety issues in the context of animal and cell culture experimentation. This CONGENTO associated event was organized by the NMS/UNL Biosafety committee in collaboration with IDEXX and deconM (biosafety specialists), and gathered around 50 participants on November 19th. The workshop included the following main topics:
- Are contaminated (or misidentified) cells preventing you from publishing results?
- New trends in animal health monitoring towards animal welfare
- Guidance on Working with Cell Cultures: Good cell culture practices
- Guidance on Working with Cell Cultures: Measures to protect individuals and the environment from any potential hazards
CONGENTO @ the European Developmental Biology Congress
CONGENTO sponsored the EDBC 2019, held at Alicante, Spain. The consortium also took the opportunity to present some of its services on Zebrafish and Molecular Tools, being very well represented by Leonor Saúde and Catarina Certal.
CONGENTO ANNUAL MEETING 2019
On October 21st, around 100 persons from the 4 CONGENTO institutions got together at the Champalimaud Center for the Unknown to follow up the infrastructure implementation, network and reinforce the consortium spirit.
In addition to the working-groups reports, poster session and tech presentations, we were lucky to count on the presence of 4 invited speakers: Pavel Tomancak, from MPI-CBG (CONGENTO Scientific Advisory Board member); Eduardo Moreno, CR; Caren Norden, IGC; and Marc Veldhoen, iMM. All of them presented their research and explained the importance of the employment of animal models for their scientific breakthroughs.
This meeting was kindly sponsored by:
CONGENTO Annual Meeting Last Preps
Getting ready for this Monday! Full house and quite a program!
Charles River and JAX Seminars
On September 26th, for the second time in 2019, IGC hosted a session of JAX Seminars, this time given by Urte Jaeh, from Charles River. More than 60 people from several institutes participated in these seminars, that covered topics such as mouse nomenclature, genetic drift and maximization of experimental reproducibility in mouse research, and key differences between B6 substrains and its impact on research. Stay tuned for the next Seminars!
Landing in the Drosophila World
The first Landing in the Drosophila World course took place between September 20-23 at the Champalimaud Foundation. It was a CONGENTO initiative joining efforts of three institutions: CEDOC, FC, and IGC and with the participation of the 19 invited speakers from these research centers. These were intense days, but well enjoyed by everyone, both organizers and students.
We received 16 inspiring young researchers – from CONGENTO institutes but also from Universidade do Algarve, Universidade de Aveiro and I3S – that were very enthusiastic about this animal model that has fascinated us for over 100 years. We hope we have helped make the initial scientific flights of this new generation of drosophilists more confident and steadier. Next year’s edition will be even better!
This event was kindly sponsored by:
Portuguese Drosophila Meeting 2019
CONGENTO was present in the Portuguese Drosophila Meeting 2019, that took place in Batalha, 13th and 14th September. This year we sponsored the event, giving a prize in Fly Services to the best talk – Mariana Osswald, from the Epithelial Polarity & Cell Division Lab at I3S . Congratulations, Mariana!
Congento Annual Meeting 2018
The first CONGENTO Annual Meeting took place on October 11th and gathered 45 people at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC). The participants were managers, technicians, caretakers, vets, and researchers, from different backgrounds and different institutes, sharing the same keen interest in developing a comprehensive infrastructure to support research using genetically tractable organisms.
Jocelyne Demengeot, IGC PI and member of the CONGENTO Steering Committee, opened the event with a travel through the history and the roots of the infrastructure – a dream that has existed for more than 10 years – and revealing some glimpses into future perspectives.
Lluis Montoliu, an invited speaker from CSIC, Madrid, presented us his views regarding animal experimentation and genome editing, with a focus on applications, challenges, and transparency. Following this, Ana Mena, head of the IGC science communication and outreach team, talked about strategies to disseminate research projects with animal models – to media and laypeople- based on what is currently done in the institute.
This first session was followed by a session of short talks by the participants that had a chance to present some of the work developed in their facilities. Covering different models and topics (from training to cryopreservation), this session raised a lot of interest, and it was a well-taken opportunity to share knowledge and to discuss new synergies.
After lunch, networking and visiting the IGC animal facilities, it was time for the working groups to present the work developed during the first year of the project. Achievements, challenges and future directions were presented and originated a fruitful debate.
Following the meeting, the coordinators still found time to sit together and further deepen some of the topics discussed throughout the day.
Overall, this meeting was an important moment to reinforce the Consortium spirit and strengthen bonds for an evergrowing and prolific collaboration.
The CONGENTO Annual Meeting 2018 was kindly supported by:
