News&Events

STEPUPIORS project members were engaged in various activities related to cancer research, science communication, science diplomacy and networking, leading to an increased excellence of the project output:

– Dr Radmila Jankovic gave a lecture at the 6th AROME – MONTENEGRO COURSE and 5th AROME – ESO Joint Consensus Conference

– Dr Miljana Tanic gave a lecture at the BioTechX Europe 2023 Congress

– Dr Suzana Stojanovic-Rundic gave a lecture at the 12th International Symposium of Coloproctology

– Dr Mladen Marinkovic gave a lecture at the Užice Oncology Symposium, Serbian Medical Society Užice Affiliate “LIV Užički dani” 2023

– Dr Ieronymos Zoidakis participated at the Stand Up Science event in Athens, Greece

– Dr Milena Cavic gave a lecture at the Horizon Europe project BIOLAWEB BgF Summer School organized by Miloš Ćirić

– Aleksandra Stanojević and Katarina Živić attended the MedILS Summer School in Bioinformatics in Split, Croatia

– Dr Jelena Spasic attended the ESMO2023 congress as the National UMOS respresentative organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology and gave a lecture at the 1st Palliative Medicine Congress of Serbia

– Dr Ana Đurić presented the first IORS RMO webinar on Personnel engagement on Horizon projects

– Dr Milena Cavic attended the Trends in Single Cell Analysis webinar organized by dr Nikolas Stoecklein

– Dr Milena Cavic gave a lecture at the Horizon Europe Greenelit Project Stakeholder meeting organized by Goran Stojanovic

The annual project meeting successfully gathered project participants from all 4 collaborating countries. Within the annual meeting period, a Post-award Grant Management Training was held for 68 Serbian future grant holders and leaders from 11 institutions. Round table discussions and sharing experience of several principal investigators of successful EU-funded and national grants from Serbia concluded the training.

After the Training, first project deliverables and milestones were outlined:

1 Biobank successfully established at IORS
4 Publications and multiple congress abstracts presented
3 large trainings on grant management and omics approaches
Many interesting outreach activities
1 Research Management Office successfully established at IORS

The event was dynamic and joyful, stimulating new collaborations and project applications. We look forward to project year 2 – the best is yet to come!

Dr Snežana Bjelogrlić presented a lecture “Establishment of a first cancer Biobank at the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia – advantages, challenges and future perspectives”

Dr Mladen Marinkovic presented an oral abstract “Predicting response to chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer using MRI-based radiomics features”

Aleksandra Stanojević presented a poster “Detection of viral proteins in locally advanced rectal cancer patient samples by mass spectrometry – predictive potential for response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy” and won the Best PhD Student Abstract Award!

The three-day conference was held at a high-step pace with excellent exchange of latest cancer research achievements in the region and Europe.

Dear researchers and citizens,

Let’s make sure our beautiful science is easily understandable to everyone!

After playing fun scientific games with an enthusiastic 0-99 audience on September 30, 2023 during the European Researchers Nights, we are sure that only the sky is the limit for the future development of science in Serbia!

Dr Katarina Mirjačić Martinović attended the ESMO Preceptorship on Immuno-Oncology in Zurich organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology.

STEPUPIORS PI Dr Milena Cavic participated as a lecturer at a training for writing Horizon Europe Twinning projects for participants from 12 scientific institutions from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, organized by the European Training Academy in Belgrade, on September 04, 2023, in a hybrid mode. Participants received instructions from experienced trainers on how to write a project proposal and how to prepare a budget according to the new Lump Sum methodology. Finally, they had the opportunity to meet other funded Twinning project coordinators, representing GrInShield Twinning Project from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences, TwiNSol – CECs from the Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, BIOLAWEB from the Institute for Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy.

The standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer is neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. To select patients who would benefit the most from this treatment, there is a need for predictive biomarkers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of clinical, pathological, radiological, inflammation-related genetic, and hematological parameters in the prediction of post-nCRT response. The obtained results showed that factors associated with favorable response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were tumor morphology and hematological parameters which can be easily and routinely derived from initial laboratory results (NMR, eosinophil, basophil and monocyte counts) in a minimally invasive manner. Using various metrics, an aggregated score of the initial eosinophil, basophil, and monocyte counts demonstrated the best predictive performance.

Congratulations to the first author Mladen Marinkovic, MD, for a great achievement and a wonderful rest of his PhD journey ahead!