STEPUPIORS SUMMER SCHOOL “LIQUID BIOPSY TECHNOLOGIES”

Liquid Biopsy Summer School organized by the STEPUPIORS Horizon Europe project (Project ID 101079217) will be hosted by Prof. Evi Lianidou at the ACTC Lab, Dept. of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in collaboration with Dr Remond Fijneman from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Hellenic Society of Liquid Biopsy.  The summer school will cover topics on the latest advancements and application of liquid biopsy technologies in clinical and translational oncology. Online streaming of lectures on Sept 30 and Oct 04, 2024, will be made freely available, with pre-registration.


STEPUPIORS SUMMER SCHOOL “LIQUID BIOPSY TECHNOLOGIES”
Sept 30 – Oct 04, 2024, Athens, Greece
PROGRAM



BRFAA Second Expert Visit to IORS

STEPUPIORS PI from BRFAA Dr Ieronymos Zoidakis visited IORS on June 07, 2024, for a second regular expert partner visit. During the visit, Dr Zoidakis got acquainted with the newly acquired equipment and biobanking facilities of the Department of Experimental Oncology. The visit was hosted by Dr Ana Đurić, Dr Marko Radulović and Aleksandra Stanojević.

Dr Zoidakis discussed on the available infrastructure and equipment important for successful activities within WP2, with a focus on the first Luminex® MAGPIX® system in Serbia that was donated to IORS by STEPUPIORS’ stakeholder company Novos d.o.o. This excellent example of collaboration between academia and industry will enable IORS to try out a simple, cost-effective medium throughput multiplexing of Merck MILLIPLEX® immunoassays on plasma samples of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Profiling of predictive biomarkers for the purpose of selection of patients who might benefit from the watch and wait approach enabling their higher quality of life will be performed as a part of project activities in WP2. Validation of the results is planned on prospectively collected samples from the first Serbian rectal cancer biobank in 2025.

Dr Zoidakis also participated as a chair and speaker at the VII Symposium of the Serbian Protomics Society (SEPA) “Proteomics Application in Biomedicine” held at the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Belgrade on June 06, 2024.




STEPUPIORS at RISE Roche Serbia Educational Academy

As part of the continuous cooperation of project participants with relevant stakeholders, STEPUPIORS coordinator Milena Cavic participated as a panelist in the session “How to write and win a scientific grant”, at the Roche Serbia RISE educational academy.

The goal of the Academy was to empower young doctors from Serbia and Montenegro with skills essential for a successful engagement in the modern healthcare system, focusing on three key areas: science, development of leadership skills and understanding of digital management in healthcare.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/roche-serbia_rise-activity-7219645579188957184-rbra?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

https://www.rochesrbija.rs/price/rise-akademija




PhD Defense Mladen Marinković 08.07.2024.

Dr Mladen Marinković defended his PhD Thesis:
at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia, on July 08, 2024.
The thesis was performed as a crucial project output, highlighting the success of Dr Mladen Marinkovic and his mentors Prof. Suzana Stojanović-Rundić, Prof. Nataša Maksimović and STEPUPIORS Coordinator Dr Milena Čavić, the Committee Members Prof. Velimir Marković, Prof. Aleksandra Đurić-Stefanović, Prof. Vesna Plešinac Karapandžić, Prof. Nebojša Manojlović and Dr Radmila Janković, and the whole STEPUPIORS project team.

The 6-year long work on the thesis yielded:
️6 scientific publications
2 invited lectures
️16 published abstracts
️3 new PhD theses derived from the initiated scientific and clinical topic
6 new project applications
️ and as a scientific crown, 1 Horizon Europe project.




STEPUPIORS at TRANSLACORE Biobanking Training School

Aleksandra Stanojevic MSc attended a training school on biobanking in Izmir, Turkey on June 10-12, 2024, organized by the Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, as a part of the collaboration with the TRANSLACORE COST Action. During the training, she exchanged experiences on sample management and discussed the establishment, maintenance, and improvement of biobank systems. Establishment of the first IORS biobank is one of the main project goals, and this training enabled an insight into various possible settings and biobank management systems.




STEPUPIORS at InSiGHT Meeting 2024

The 10th Biennial Meeting of InSiGHT was organized by the International Society for Gastrointestinal Hereditary Tumors in Barcelona from June 19 to 22, 2024. The meeting focused on topics relevant to professionals involved in treating patients with gastrointestinal hereditary tumors. Dr. Marija Đorđić Crnogorac and Dr. Ana Damjanović Veličković represented STEPUPIORS at the meeting. Dr Đorđić Crnogorac presented the results on patient testing at the Genetic Counseling Center of the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia in an abstract titled “Hereditary colorectal cancer – first report on mutational profile in Serbia.”




STEPUPIORS at BelBi2024 Congress

Dr Miljana Tanic attended the 5th Belgrade Bioinformatics Conference – BelBi2024 held in Belgrade, Serbia, on June 17-20, 2024. She presented a Flash Talk with latest STEPUPIORS project results as a poster presentation:

Navigating ELSI for FAIR multiomics data management within STEPUPIORS international rectal cancer project

Dr Tanic highlighted the roadmap and examples for navigating the complex ELSI landscape required for FAIR biomedical and multi-omics data management in accordance with the applicable regulatory provisions relating to the protection of personal data and to medical confidentiality.




STEPUPIORS at EACR2024 Congress

The STEPUPIORS team participated in multiple activities at the fantastic and science-packed EACR2024 congress in Rotterdam, Netherlands on June 10-13, 2024 organized by the European Association for Cancer Research.
Ana Đurić presented a project abstract “Expanding the Landscape of Professional Project Management to Support Cancer Research in Serbia” and attended the EuCanImage Horizon 2020 Project Workshop: Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Multi-Country Cancer Imaging.
Milena Cavic participated in the inaugural EACR Women in Leadership Workshop and represented the national affiliated Serbian Association for Cancer Research (SDIR).

Plans for the future project Summer School on Liquid Biopsy which will be held in October 2024 in Athens were developed in detail with professor Evi Lianidou from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Hellenic Society for Liquid Biopsy.