stepupiors

This May, the STEPUPIORS team visited the fifth-grade students of the Elementary School “Jovan Miodragović” in Belgrade. Dr Milena Čavić, Dr Ana Đurić and Aleksandra Stanojević, as part of an educational workshop called “Healthy intestines – healthy us”, talked to the children about a healthy lifestyle. They tried to emphasize to pupils that the active implementation of a healthy lifestyle could improve the health of the entire nation and reduce the incidence of malignant diseases, with emphasis on malignancies of the digestive system. Information about healthy eating, the importance of physical activity and the harmfulness of bad habits such as smoking and excessive use of electronic devices was conveyed to children in a way adapted to their age through play, recognizing healthy foods, solving tests and making models of DNA molecules. The main aim of this workshop was to educate children about the fact that they need to take care of their own health in the future and that the effect of possibly present unfavorable hereditary factors can be significantly reduced by a healthy lifestyle.

The children showed good theoretical knowledge which, for various reasons, they still do not apply in their everyday life. Their desire is to acquire new knowledge through creative work with adults. Our obligation is to enable them to do so, which will first of all support their proper psychophysical development.

The STEPUPIORS team participated in the 13^th Congress of the Serbian Society of Toxicology with international participation and the 1^st TOXSEE Regional Conference entitled “Present and Future of toxicology: challenges and opportunities“, which were held from May 10 to 12, 2023 in Belgrade. Dr. Ana Đurić presented the joint work of members of the STEPUPIORS Twinning project entitled “Is there a relation between hematological toxicity and response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer?” whose objective was to evaluate the association between hematologic toxicity and tumor response to therapy. The research included 75 patients, who were treated at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia in the period from June 2020 to January 2022. By further targeted monitoring of defined hematological parameters, the study will provide answers that contribute to the progress of a personalized approach to the treatment of patients with this malignancy disease.

During the three days of the congress, participants had the opportunity to listen to lectures by colleagues from Serbia and abroad, which covered a wide range of important topics in the field of contemporary toxicology. It was an honor and pleasure for us to share our results with our colleagues, as well as to participate in a meeting of exceptional educational and scientific importance for our community.

A strategic meeting of STEPUPIORS project participants, IORS Director Dr Milan Zegarac, Deputy Director Dr Dejan Stojiljkovic and Heads of administrative departments was held on April 05, 2023, to review project achievements in the first 6 months. Project Coordinator Dr Milena Cavic presented all performed activities, encompassing a successful kickoff meeting coupled with a pre-award training, presentations at congresses, outreach promotions, expert visits, training and scientific results.

It was concluded that the project start has been very active and successful, with 5 deliverables and 1 milestone already submitted to the European Research Executive Agency. Strategies for further project development were previously set in place with partner institutions. Project participants expressed enthusiasm for the continuance of all activities. IORS Management strongly supported future plans for enhancing personnel, scientific and communication capacities of the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.

After intensive six-month practices at partner institutions’ project management offices and external trainings, a Decision to form a Research Management Team at IORS was issued on March 08, 2023, that would serve as a prototype for the future IORS Research Management Office. The Team consists of project Management staff Dr Milena Čavić, Dr Ana Đurić and Dr Marko Radulović, the Head of IORS Scientific Department Dr Radmila Janković, Heads of IORS Procurement, Legal and Financial Departments and representatives of laboratory technical staff. The Team will liaise project activities between the IORS research team and the local legal, administrative, procurement and human resources IORS staff to enable a more effective project flow. The Team will also perform risk mitigation continuously during the project and strive to coordinate future intellectual property applications at the national and international level.

D5.2 STEPUPIORS