Last Thursday and Friday, the Institute held the CSCI Annual Retreat & Symposium on 4 and 5 June in Cambridge.
Our annual event brings together the stem cell research community for a day and a half of talks, posters, Institute updates, and networking outside of the office and labs.
This year, we also featured a special afternoon talk and panel session on matrix biology and regenerative medicine, a research image competition, a video competition from Institute teams, and an evening social with dinner and Bingo.
The special panel session this year, ‘The Fabric of Life: Built by Cells, Shaped by Matrix,’ invited Professor Rachel Lennon, Professor Clair Baldock, Dr Richard Collins, and Dr Sarah Woolner from the Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine in Manchester; Dr Greta Skrupskelyte (Alcolea Group), and Professor Melinda Duer (Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, Cambridge) to share their experiences and engage with the audience for a panel session hosted by Dr Mekayla Storer.
Thursday evening’s poster session asked MPhil students, PhD students, Postdocs, Research Assistants and Technicians to present their work and compete for Top Poster prizes. This was followed by a social gathering with a fajita bar, dessert crumble station, and Bingo, hosted by Ghanesh Angris and Olivia Hill from Facilities and Imaging.
The 2026 Retreat & Symposium was kindly sponsored by Miltenyi, Novogene, and Proteintech alongside our SCI-TIF members 10x Genomics, iotasciences, PeptiMatrix, Qkine, Singleron, and Stemcell Technologies.
On Friday, in addition to the scientific talks, groups competed with short videos showcasing their work while audience members voted on the Most Creative (winner: Honey I Shrunk the Facilities Manager by the Imaging Team); Most Informative (winner: Clone Wars by the Alcolea Group); and Overall Favourite (winner: Planet JCBC by the Facilities Group).
We also featured some of the most visually striking research images out of the Institute, with researchers competing for top prizes (see the images of our winners below).
1st place - left: Denise Tran and Olivia Hill. 2nd place - top right: Thomas Dennison. 3rd place - bottom right: Davide Rossetti.
To conclude the event, an awards session honoured Research Culture & Integrity, Workplace Culture, and Public Engagement efforts at the Institute throughout the past year, as well as research prizes for poster and flash talk presentations throughout the retreat. This year’s winners were:
Commitment to Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Prize
- Naive Stem Cell Podcast from our postgrads: Jethro Lundie-Brown, Nikolaos Markozanis, Alexander Atkin, Davide Rossetti, and John-Poul Ng-Blichfeldt. “For creating, editing, and releasing the podcast alongside other work duties, and for creating a special jingle for the podcast to bring stem cell science to life!”
Commitment to Research Culture Prize
- Lab Management Team – “For being quick to respond and making it possible for everyone else to do their work by keeping things running behind the scenes, supporting the whole research community, and helping each other succeed. So much of the great research happening at CSCI wouldn’t be possible without them.”
Commitment to Research Culture Prize
- Cambridge Blood & Stem Cell Biobank Research Nurses – “For being organised, knowledgeable and supportive, and going above and beyond to try and find a solution. They work closely with patients, multiple research teams, external collaborators, and, without their work and dedication, it wouldn’t be possible to attain the human samples that are so essential to research. For the impact they have across so many projects, which cannot be overstated.”
Commitment to Workplace Culture Prize
- Maria Canas (Human Resources) – “For her strong commitment to a positive workplace culture. Since stepping up to cover the role for maternity leave, she has shown exceptional empathy and understanding in her new role. Her actions reflect a deep commitment not only to the wellbeing of colleagues but also to creating a culture where people feel supported during challenging times. By guiding colleagues towards the most appropriate support, Maria reinforced the importance of empathy, trust, and looking out for one another.”
- Juan Rubio Lara (Gottgens Group) – “For being an excellent colleague and making an effort to connect with people. Juan is particularly amazing at introducing students across different labs (across the world!), which is very helpful for networking and building professional connections.”
Top posters:
- Peacy Panichewa (PhD student, Wilkinson Group)
- Camille Dumas (Postdoc, Storer Group)
- Jia Hua Wang (PhD student, Storer Group)
- Julian Gonzalez Rubio (Postdoc, Sinha Group)
Top Flash Talks
- Top Postgrad Talk – Licyel Paulas Condori (Gottgens Group)
Top Postdoc Talk – Jaana Bagri (Postdoc, Huntly Group)
Find the event booklet with details of the talks and poster session here.