The STARSTEM partners assembled in Barcelona for a plenary meeting hosted by PI Prof. Romain Quidant and his team at ICFO. The meeting was held on January 10th and January 11th 2019.

Coordinator Martin Leahy of NUI Galway and Romain Quidant opened the meeting, welcoming the team and highlighting the achievements of the team over the first year of the project.

STARSTEM team meets at ICFO, Barcelona January 10 and 11The STARSTEM nanostar has been optimized to help ensure that it will work as a suitable and effective contrast agent when tracking our cells. Batches of the nanostar have already been produced for use in our research studies. Having discussed nanostar production, the topic moved to cell production. This comprises production of the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and microvesicles. We are interested in investigating the extent to which these cell products will be effective as a form of regenerative therapy for osteoarthritis. The use of imaging to track them will help us to better understand how healing occurs over time. Pre-clinical work has begun, and the initial findings were shared. We will share news of our pre-clinical publications as they come available. Finally, work on our data analysis systems is also underway.