A collaboration between stem-cell researchers and physical scientists started at an event to bring researchers from different fields together.

A transatlantic project to investigate the use of nanomaterials in stem-cell growth can trace its roots back to a small meeting that included the use of chocolate bars and pieces of fruit in ice-breaker sessions and dinner above the Roman Baths in the historic city of Bath. It was at this meeting that Peter Donovan, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and Alan Dalton, a materials physicist at the University of Surrey, first heard about each other's work.

The meeting was organized by SETsquared — an initiative by four universities in the south of England to support new technology companies — and brought together clinicians and a wide range of researchers. At the meeting Donovan learned about the carbon nanotubes and nanostructures that physicists could make, while Dalton realized that the materials he had been making for years could be used as scaffolds for cell engineering. It became clear to both that working together was the way to go. Back in Surrey, Dalton convinced Richard Sear, a theoretical biological physicist, to join the team. Together, they will probe how stem cells grow and respond to their material environment.

“It would have been very difficult for either group to have worked independently on the project,” says Donovan, “because of the expertise required for each part of the project. I think we all knew that we had more to gain by working together and that there was no real danger of one member of the group easily gaining the expertise to do the other parts of it and walking away with the whole project”.

“As a physicist, this type of study would normally be outside my comfort zone,” says Dalton, “and I would never have entered this area unless we were working with the very best stem-cell people”.