During a recent visit to VIVES University of Applied Sciences in Kortrijk, Belgium, kindly hosted by Tim Bekaert, two of our doctoral candidates (DCs) had the opportunity to present their research to second-year Bachelor students in biotechnology. Mark (DC7)...

This week, three of our DCs - Roger Mora de la Serna, Ananya Singh, and Mark Leahy - share their experience of attending the ESGCT Spring School in Coimbra, Portugal. The ESGCT (European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy) Spring School is an intensive course...

One of our DCs, Ananya Singh, was recently invited for a short interview by a KU Leuven Master’s student Sabrina Fiore as part of her Master's thesis research, “Navigating Dual Worlds: Identity Formation and Integration Process among Indians in Leuven between...

From 2–6 February 2026, ORGESTRA fellows, partners and associate partners gathered at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon for School 2: Filling the Drug Development Pipeline. The programme combined molecular disease mechanisms, high-throughput screening,...

The project mid-term review meeting took place in Lisbon, Portugal on 6th February 2026, hosted by the Faculty of Scinces, University of Lisbon. The meeting was well attended by network members and included presentations and posters from our DCs.

Congratulations to Lena Heer - DC10,  for winning a poster award at the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences biannual meeting January 2026.

On Sunday, 23rd November, two of our DCs welcomed many curious minds to the Open Science Day at KU Leuven as part of the Leuven Institute for Rare Diseases. From poster presentations, deep-dive explanations and lab tours, both DCs brought their research on...

On October 16–17, we were invited to iBET in Oeiras, Lisbon, for a two-day workshop on Research and Transferable Skills. 💡 Day 1 focused on the research at iBET, exploring advanced 3D cell models, omics technologies, and bioprocesses for stem cells and organoids,...

Leica’s motto — “From Eye to Insight” — perfectly captured the spirit of our recent training and facility tour at the EMBL Imaging Centre in Heidelberg. Over two immersive days, we explored how cutting-edge imaging technologies go far beyond visualization: they are...

For more information on this event go to: https://weekendvandewetenschap.nl/activiteiten/2025/mini-niertjes-kweken/...

Did you know why August 1st is celebrated as the World RNA Day? The date AUG 1 is a meaningful tribute to the molecular basis of life. AUG is the start codon in messenger RNA (mRNA), signaling the initiation of translation, and 1 marks its position as the first...

This month two of our DCs have been undertaking outreach activities to high school students at two schools in Germany. Martje Grensemann DC1 explains more: "Last week, I visited my former high school, Gymnasium am Mühlenberg in Bad Schwartau, and gave a full-day...

This week five of our DCs,  Ann-Engelke, Lena, Aurora, Giulia and Martje, share their experience of attending the School of the Dutch Kidney Foundation in Soesterberg NL on 16-18th June. The Summer School is an intensive course designed for early-career kidney...

What have our PhD students been up to?The 48th Europe Cystic Fibrosis Conference was held for 3 - 7 June 2025, in Milan, Italy. From the ORGESTRA community, two PhD students, Jorge Madrid Paredes (DC13) and Woosub Shin (DC12), and two PIs, Kors van der Ent and...

This month ORGESTRA supports  Cystic Fibrosis Awareness by highlighting the umet need and the advances in personalised medicine that the project aims to contribute to.[dipl_image_card_carousel _builder_version="4.27.4" _module_preset="default"...

What is Cystinosis? Cystinosis is a rare genetic disease that affects about 1 in 100,000 to 200,000 people worldwide. It is caused by a mutation in a gene called CTNS, which provides instructions for making a protein called cystinosin. This protein’s job is to...

This months webinar featured guest speaker Matthew Pavlovich - Editor of the CellPress reviews journal Trends in Biotechnology. This was a great opportunity for our DCs to learn about writing a review and what it takes to be a reviewer. A big thanks to Matthew for...

Congratulations to our own DC Mark Leahy  who was presented with a Student Helper Award at the ECFS Basic Science conference 2025. This is a key annual event for all scientists working on cystic fibrosis, especially PhD students and post-docs, allowing them to...

Why everyone should care about rare genetic diseasesRare genetic diseases affect about 1 in 2,000 people. What may seem uncommon at first glance affects millions of people globally. Even if you are not directly affected by a rare genetic disease, someone you know —...

Could you give us a brief introduction about yourself and your research interests?I am a mother of 4 sons; in parallel, I have pursued full-time University scientific and teaching careers. I am a Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Lisboa...