European Federation for Systematic Stem Cell Biology

EuroSyStem is an EC funded partnership between Universities, small to medium businesses (SMEs) and named researchers from both the public and private sector.  
 
There are 18 partners in the consortium six based in the UK and 12 based in Europe spread across eight European countries.
 
The Centres involved are all international leaders in their respective fields, and collectively provide the skills and technologies necessary for ground-breaking stem cell research. There are 27 research groups involved in the project. 
 
Our ambition is to interlink complementary biological and computational expertise so as to drive the generation of new knowledge on the characteristics of normal and abnormal stem cells.

This four year project started on 1st March 2008 and will finish on 29th Febuary 2012.

Research

The EuroSyStem Federation brings together elite European research teams to create a unique and world-leading programme in fundamental stem cell biology. Our ambition is to interlink complementary biological and computational expertise so as to drive the generation of new knowledge on the characteristics of normal and abnormal stem cells.

We concentrate on illuminating the molecular circuitry governing the decision between self-renewal and commitment to differentiation. By measuring and modelling stem cell properties and behaviour we will pave the way for application of systems methodology. We will mine and exploit information from studies and screens in model organisms, but our primary focus is on the paradigmatic mammalian stem cell systems - haematopoiesis and epithelia in vivo, and embryonic and neural stem cells in vitro.

We will cross-evaluate between systems issues of cellular hierarchy, signalling, epigenetics, dysregulation, and plasticity. Microenvironmental perturbation, asymmetric division, and transcriptional regulation are considered in a cross-cutting mechanism-centred work package.

Our multidisciplinary approach includes transgenesis, real time imaging, multi-parameter flow cytometry, transcriptomics, RNA interference, proteomics and single cell methodologies.

SMEs contribute to the development of enhanced resolution quantitative technologies. A platform work package will provide new computational tools and database resources, enabling implementation of novel analytical and modelling approaches. EuroSyStem will engage with and provide a focal point for the European stem cell research community. The focussed collaborations within the EuroSyStem research project will be augmented by federating the best new independent investigators working in different tissues and organisms across Europe.