CARDIFF CHINA MEDICAL RESEARCH COLLABORATIVE (CCMRC) news | ISSUE 4 Our Partners: CCMRC Monthly Newsletter by Ross Collins (Editor: Sarah Koushyar). Student update March highlights      New starters at CCMRC CUKC 2015 – www.cukc.org.uk ‘Science in Health Week March seminar meeting: miRNA PhD students literature reviews Admin update Welcomes and Goodbyes… March saw the arrival of Weijuan Jia from Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University and Carly Bunston, MrES student. Weijuan will focus on a collaborative breast cancer research project over the next 12 months. At the end of March, we bid farewell to Sheila Wang, a PhD student from University of Toronto who has returned to Canada after a six week placement, and to Ben and Georgia who have progressed on with their studies. We wish them all a bright future. China – UK Cancer (CUKC) Conference Science in Health 2015 After a successful visit last year, March once again welcomed many sixth form and college students to CCMRC as part of the annual Science in Health two day event. Students and staff gave demonstrations on some of the research carried out at CCMRC: • • • • An introduction to cancer and metastasis, presented by Dr Sioned Owen, Ross Collins and Bruno Bastos An introduction to some of the molecular techniques CCMRC uses, presented by Beth Frugtniet, Robyn Bradbury, Sarah Koushyar, Emily Telford and Jeyna Resaul A brief talk on protein techniques was given by David Feng An introduction to the functional assays we use was given by Dr Hoi Weeks and Valentina Flamini The college students and teachers commented on how useful the day had been and how it was a “great way to get young people involved in science.” We look forward to continuing to host the students next year. The Admin team have continued to progress the CUKC 2015 conference brochure and abstracts for journal publication. Group Leaders update Journal publication CCMRC’s Seniors, who sit on the Scientific Committee for CUKC 2015, have focused on proofing and editing abstracts for inclusion in the conference materials. Deadline for abstract submission is the 20th April 2015 March monthly seminar Date: Friday 27th March External speaker: Prof. Chris Thorne Topic: “Genome Editing Comes of Age” Learning Outcomes:  An overview of gene targeting  Genome Editing tools (rAAV and CRISPR/Cas9)  Key considerations for gene editing  Genome editing at scale (High through knockout cell line generation and Genome Wide sgRNA Snthetic Lethality Screening CCMRC Research presentations:  Dr Lin Ye – “S100A7 a calcium binding protein in cancer metastasis”  Robyn Bradbury – “MDM2 and PSMA in Breast and Prostate cancer”  Emma Liu – “The role of Sm-like protein in breast cancer”  Aled Jones – “Implications of IL-17 in wound healing” Next Month • Pushing for publications Throughout March our PhD students have focused on writing scientific literature reviews. We have a diverse range of scientific expertise in cancer biology ranging from wound healing to molecular biology to cancer microenvironment. We are aiming for publications during the Summer. • • • Journal Club Presenter: Maria Pagoni Topic: Studying miRNA expression in prostate cancer cell lines Learning Outcomes:  An overview of miRNAs and their implications in cancer  Update CCMRC team on miRNA expression in cancer cell lines • New feature: Directors comments: Professor Wen G Jiang, Director of CCMRC CCMRC will bid farewell to Catherine and Cynthia, international students who will return to China to continue their studies The Admin team will have submitted the CUKC materials to deadline CCMRC are hosting a delegation from the Beijing Municipal Government PhD student Bruno Bastos will lecture and undertake demo’s with groups of students. A final note…. During March we celebrated Emily Telford and Dr Sioned Owen’s birthday. Many Happy returns to you both