Post by Manuele G. Muraro

A month ago, our study on fibronectin- and bioactive glass-modified alginate scaffolds was accepted in the Journal of Functional Biomaterials (open access link below). A key takeaway: immortalized and primary cells tell different stories. Immortalized cells proliferate on all scaffolds, primary cells barely do, yet in vivo host integration is strong. Model choice matters, and in vivo responses remain the real benchmark. The project itself had a simple origin: Benedetta Guagnini, Ph.D and Andrea Mazzoleni met at Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, Inc. (TERMIS) in Manchester, exchanged ideas, and decided to build something together. That conversation turned into a collaboration and eventually into a manuscript. We also had the pleasure of hosting Benedetta in our lab at the Department of Biomedicine in Basel for 6 months (supported by EMBO). This experience strengthened both the project and our group. It’s a good example of what conferences are really for: not the slides, but the discussions in between sessions, the ones that trigger new projects and new connections. Congratulations to Benedetta, Andrea, and all co-authors for driving this forward, and thanks to the teams at the Università degli Studi di Trieste and the University of Basel for making this study possible. We also gratefully acknowledge support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network SINERGIA2020 (Grant Agreement No. 860715). https://lnkd.in/eBNVZFAG