STEPUPIORS Annual Project Meeting
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!
STEPUPIORS at SDIR-6 Congress of the Serbian Association for Cancer Research
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.
STEPUPIORS team at the European Researchers` Night
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!
September 2023 Project Activities
Dr Katarina Mirjačić Martinović attended the ESMO Preceptorship on Immuno-Oncology in Zurich organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology.
Title: Published preprint to celebrate the World Cancer Research Day
Dr Milena Cavic lecturer at the European Training Academy's Horizon Europe Twinning projects writing training
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.
New Scientific Publication within WP2
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!
Dr Milena Cavic and Prof. Makis Zoidakis lecturers at 5ISSCBSD
STEPUPIORS Outreach events in kindergartens
Our first project year was filled with many important and inspiring events. Of particular importance was our work with young people and children on their education about healthy food and a healthy lifestyle. In addition to visiting elementary schools, we also visited children from two kindergartens in Belgrade, PU “Poletarac” from Palilula and PU “Lunja” from Vračar. Dr Ana Đurić, Dr Milena Cavic and Dr Marija Đorđić Crnogorac, in a good atmosphere through games and fun, encouraged children to think about healthy lifestyle habits that are extremely important for their future and proper psychophysical development. How the children accepted these topics and how willing they were to learn new knowledge is best described by their numerous drawings that we received as a gift.
