STARSTEM Coordinator Prof Martin Leahy of the Tissue Optics and Microcirculation Imaging (TOMI) Lab at the National University of Ireland Galway was an invited lecturer at the Indian Institute of Science Education And Research Kolkata, and at the Cochin University of Science & Technology (CUSAT). Martin’s talk was entitled “Reaching for the stars to drive stem cell therapy”. The two lectures took place in January 2019 in Mohanpur, West Bengal and in Kuttanad, Alleppey, India, respectively. More than 170 members of the scientific research community were in attendance.