PASTEUR2030
A look back on Hack the Ageing: a one-day ageing hackathon with 18 participants from 16 laboratories, resulting in four projects
Last week, 18 participants including postdocs and PhD students spent a full day of cross-disciplinary work focused on ageing as part of scientific priority 4 (Health and disease at the extremes of life) of the Pasteur 2030 strategic plan and supported by the Scientific Programming and Incentive Actions Department (SPAIS).
This full day session was notable for its transversality: 16 different laboratories from 10 departments came together to brainstorm on a common relevant topic – ageing.
Eight mentors were on site throughout the day to guide and fuel the discussions: Ana Cumano, Chiara Zurzolo and Darragh Duffy (referents of scientific priority 4); Dalila Saulebekova (event facilitator), Maoussi Lhuillier-Akakpo and Joseph Josephides (Bioinformatics Hub); Shauna Katz (Grants office/DARRI); and JongEun Ihm (DARRI).
By the end of the day, four projects emerged:
LungSpan: Layal Massara, Rémy Masson, Duc Duy Vu and Min Zhang
EndoAgenous: Andrea Checcoli, Xin Hou, Magdalena Pereyra, Emmanuelle Permal and Eugenia Pugliese
Phage Against Age: Madeline Akbari, Till Ohlendorf, Tanaïs Moreau and Emma Rego
BrainStorm: Meha Beatrix, Nilanshu Manocha, Zachariah Schuurs, Valentina Vadori and Messat Yassine
Each team received personalized, constructive feedback from the mentors of scientific priority 4 and were strongly encouraged to apply for the Seed Grants call for scientific priority 4, which launched on October 9.
The participants' verdict was unanimous: the day was described as ”stimulating, enriching, and formative”, with a clear appetite for more such opportunities to cross lab boundaries and spark new collaborations.
Thank you to everyone who made this happen!
