Five VU Researchers Awarded at the Young Scientists Conference
Five women researchers from Vilnius University (VU) have been awarded diplomas and prizes for the best presentations at the 15th Lithuanian Young Scientists' Conference "BIOFUTURE: Prospects for Nature and Life Sciences". They are doctoral student Gabrielė Žukauskaitė (Faculty of Medicine), doctoral student Karolina Juškaitė (Life Sciences Centre), Dr Ieva Gendvilienė (Faculty of Medicine), doctoral student Laurita Klimkaitė (Life Sciences Centre) and Dr Raimonda Kubiliūtė (Life Sciences Centre). The event took place on 24 November at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
G. Žukauskaitė, junior researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine has been awarded for her presentation "Analysis of genomic regions affected by positive natural selection in the group of Lithuanian Chernobyl liquidators". The researcher presented a study evaluating the adaptive effects of identified statistically significant protective genomic variants and their regions in a cohort of 93 Lithuanian Chernobyl liquidators.
The presentation "Immunological tools for detecting antibiotic resistance in bacteria" by K. Juškaitė from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Life Sciences Centre won second place. It presents research carried out at the Institute of Biotechnology at the Life Sciences Centre of Vilnius University to develop antibodies and immunological diagnostic systems for the detection of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and to test them in biological samples.
Third place was awarded to Dr I. Gendvilienė, a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, for her presentation "The effect of innovative composite scaffolds on bone regeneration", L. Klimkaitė, a doctoral student at the Institute of Biosciences of the Life Sciences Centre, for her presentation "Stenotrophomonas maltophilia – the origin of new antibiotic-resistant pathogens", and R. Kubiliūtė, junior researcher at the Department of Botany and Genetics of the Life Sciences Centre, for her presentation "Epigenetic biomarkers for the non-invasive diagnosis and prognosis of renal cell cancers".
The aim of the 15th Lithuanian Young Scientists' Conference "BIOFUTURE: Prospects for the Nature and Life Sciences" is to review the latest results of fundamental and applied research in the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, biochemistry, biomedicine and geosciences. The conference was organised by the Department of Biology, Medicine and Geosciences of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.