PhD students Fiona Kumnova and Mia Al-Souki from the Placenta in Health and Disease recently completed a 4EU+ funded scientific exchange at the University of Geneva in the Laboratory of Gynaecological Tumor and Development Biology, led by Prof. Marie Cohen.
During their stay, the students gained hands-on experience with advanced experimental approaches in developmental and placental biology. They learned the isolation of primary trophoblasts from first-trimester placental tissue and the generation of placental organoids from early pregnancy samples. In addition, they performed isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors and explored co-culture systems, including extravillous trophoblasts with PBMCs and with the THP-1 cell line. The exchange also provided valuable insight into how experimental design is structured and applied in ongoing research projects within Prof. Cohen’s laboratory.
Alongside day-to-day work in the lab, the visit included a joint workshop, where both teams presented their research and shared data, discussed ideas, and exchanged feedback in a highly constructive setting. Expert input from Prof. Cohen and her group contributed to refining ongoing research work while also giving the students an opportunity to engage closely with innovative projects being developed in Geneva.
Beyond the scientific programme, the exchange concluded with a memorable cultural highlight — a hands-on Swiss chocolate-making experience.
Overall, this exchange highlights the importance of the 4EU+ Alliance in enabling opportunities that help young researchers build skills, networks, and long-term international collaborations. It also strengthened the growing collaboration between the two teams. This collaboration has been recently reinforced through the accepted Horizon Europe project DataRoc, where both teams are consortium partners working on AI-generated digital twins for science.
Text and photo: Placenta in Health and Disease team