Thanks to Hanna, Sacharias and Manni for presenting their work at Café Ariman!
Hanna, a PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine, explained her work on identifying genes that control how stem cells divide. This is important, because stem cells are often very rare so it can be difficult to put together a sufficient number. On the other hand, uncontrolled expansion would make these cells non-functional and potentially dangerous. This is why a clever approach is required to identify targets, which could temporarily expand stem cells while leaving them functional for regenerative therapies.
Sacharias, a PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine, presented his work on heart surgery with coronary stents. These are small medical devices which are inserted through a blood vessel (he's holding one in the picture below) and which can expand at the site of a blockage to keep the blood flow running. Specifically, Sacharias is exploring how using tiny cameras to guide the placements of coronary stents could be used to make this life-saving treatment even better in the future.
Manni, a PhD student at the Faculty of Law, gave a talk on her research in the field of assisted dying. The law, for understandable reasons, defines dying as something bad which we should be protected from. At the same, we favor bodily autonomy, dignity and safety from harm and suffering. All of these priorities clash in the case of assisted dying, which current laws are not made to deal with. Manni presented the current state of law on the matter, some of the recent stories which brought the issue of assisted dying to light in Sweden, and some of the future directions in balancing conflicting concerns on this thorny issue.
Join us next time on May 20th at 19h at Cafe Ariman for more fascinating research across Lund University!
