UniStem 2023: An international day to approach science to students (Basic Research)

UNISTEM DAY 2023, HOSTED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, APPROACHED STEM CELLS AND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE RESEARCH TO MORE THAN 100 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

One year more, University of Barcelona and Creatio acted as the Spanish co-organizer of the UniStem 2023 by coordinating the 10 universities and research centers from Spain that participated in the event.

UniStem Day is the biggest European event for high school students dedicated to the dissemination of stem cells and regenerative medicine. The event is a great opportunity to promote the curiosity and interest in science to teenagers by approaching them to the daily life of our scientists. 

UniStem Day 2023, which arrived in its 15th edition, was held on Friday 10th March 2023 in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of University of Barcelona. This year, more than 100 students and teachers from 5 high schools’ from Barcelona and its surroundings (Institut Joan Miró, Institut Milà i Fontanals, Col·legi Badalonès, Escola Santíssima Trinitat and Institut Montserrat Miró i Vilà) were met to take a closer look at the many faces of scientific research and the lives of researchers by seminars, videoconferences call, games and other moments of fun.

The event was inaugurated by Dr. Antoni Trilla, Dean of the Faculty. Then, the scientific talks took place. The guest speakers were Dr. Gemma Marfany, Professor of Genetics, Department of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, Dr. Núria Torras, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and Dr. Alice Louail, Postdoctoral Researcher for the 4-DBR project at Creatio UB – Barcelona Clinic Research Foundation/Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (FRCB/IDIBAPS).The three talks were different and complementary which addressed the following topics (I) Gene and cellular therapy; (II) 3D Bioprinting and tissue regeneration and (III) Neurosciences: the brain and its regeneration.

The event was not just focused on promoting the academic research, the industrial research was considered, and a special session was co-organized with Pall CorporationCytiva enterprise. Cristina Tortajada and Víctor Tomàs, both Account Managers of Pall Corporation – Cytiva shared their industrial experience and the benefits that their company provide in the innovation in the field of advanced therapies.

Students participating in UniStem Day 2023 (Aula Magna of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences UB)

UniStem Day was born in 2009 in Milan from an idea of the university professor and Italian senator for life Elena Cattaneo, the event once more time confirmed its international dimension with the involvement of 87 universities and research centres in 14 countries (Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and 2 continents, bringing together more than 30.000 students from over the world.

In Spain the Day was co-organized by University of Barcelona and Creatio UB, with the gold sponsorship of Pall Corporation Cytiva, with the sponsorship of Biorem, Sociedad Española de Terapia Génica y Celular, red TERAV , Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación and Next GenerationUE.

UniStem Day can be found online here: www.unistem.it, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  #unistem2023.