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The Summer Holidays are coming to an end, still, some of the high school students were thinking about science and development during this wonderful time. In the frame of CANVAS project, three talented students took the opportunity to attend a Molecular and cellular biology workshop in the International Centre for Cancer Vaccine Science. Thanks to the engagement of the Immune Memory and Cell Reprogramming Team led by dr Wojciech Siwek, students have learned a lot about biology and the work of scientists. They had the opportunity to visit the center and its laboratories. After safety and regulation training, participants tried to prepare material for laboratory work and samples for sequencing, or to isolate the plasmids in theory and practice. They were also offered some practical classes on the preparation of plasmids for cloning and electrophoresis. Additionally, the attendants found information about European Union funds, projects and values. We hope to see more students next summer!

On the 29th of April 2024, ICCVS successfully conducted two seminars as part of the Science, Biotech & Beyond series. The first seminar was delivered by Dr. Stefano Persano, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Oncology and Hemato-oncology of the University of Milan Statale and an Affiliated Researcher at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, Italy. The talk was titled “Design and Development of mRNA-based Therapeutics for Cancer Treatment”. Dr. Persano discussed the manufacturing procedure of mRNA therapeutics, emphasizing how sequence design, purification, and formulation can be tailored to ensure better therapeutic outcomes, particularly for cancer vaccines. Additionally, he presented preliminary data on Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) formulation refinement aimed at improving the spleen-tropism of LNPs upon systemic administration.

The second seminar featured Dr. Maria Guevara Lopez from the University of Genoa, Department of Experimental Medicine. Ms. Lopez discussed the advantages of Natural Killer (NK) cell-based therapies for cancer treatment. The focused was put on how memory-like NK cells can overcome significant barriers that limit the full implementation of NK cells as cellular therapies, focusing on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Following the seminars, Dr. Persano and Dr. Lopez enjoyed a tour of ICCVS facilities. We discussed how their expertise could be integrated into ICCVS’s ongoing projects and research interests and vice versa. Our guests were particularly impressed by the translatability of ICCVS’s laboratory research.

On 12th of June prof. Natalia  Marek-Trzonkowska, Director of ICCVS was a speaker at EuroScience Open Forum panel on how to build capacity in Research Excellence. This year, an 11th edition of ESOF took place in Poland, in Katowice. ESOF2024 is one of the most significant international conferences, having an impact on the science and world transformation. During the event, scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians, journalists and inhabitants discuss the latest scientific achievements, the arts and their impact on society.
The main topics discussed by us during the panel were:
-> Defining Research Excellence
-> How can institutions maximise the benefits of the ERA widening program in tandem with their institutional strategies?
-> Considering successful investment strategies in other countries, like Singapore or China, focussing on building research excellence, what lessons can Europe learn from these approaches? Are similar strategies applicable in the European context?
-> What are the key components of a unified ‘Team Europe’ approach to research excellence, and how can this be achieved? What regulatory and infrastructural frameworks are necessary to support this vision?

Thanks to the distinguished panellists Anna Plater-Zyberk Head of Office of International Cooperation at Polish Academy of Sciences and Marta Agostinho an Executive Director at EU-LIFE, as well as valuable chair of the session Michiel Kolman a Senior Vice President at Elsevier, chair of the Inclusive Publishing & Literacy committee the session engaged the audience in very lively discussion.

The main conclusions were:
-> The excellent research pushes the boundaries of knowledge by generating new insides, theories and approaches out of the box.
-> The excellent research is done by talented researchers. Therefore, the Team is the first crucial element of excellent research. Creating the team should go first before investments in infrastructure.
-> Research programmes for widening countries should be continued, however more focus should be put on joint research of the partners.
-> To be successful, the solutions for building research and innovation capacity initiated by the widening programmes, need to be supported by the following actions of the national governments.

Thanks to ALL PARTICIPANTS for your contribution!

From May 14 to 16, five members of ICCVS participated in a workshop on 3D cell cultures and associated bioinformatics methods, which is one of the training activities planned in the CANVAS project. The hosting institution was the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in Grenoble, France. The attendees Dr. Anna Biernacka, Alicja Dziadosz, and PhD students Katarzyna Dziubek, Ines Papak, and Martyna Muszczek had opportunity to take part in both lectures and hands-on training.

The 3D culture models training was coordinated by Dr. Flora Clement and her PhD student, Sophia Coffy, who shared their expertise in advanced 3D culture techniques they use to study pancreatic cancer. The bioinformatics training sessions were conducted by Dr. Christophe Battail and his team, covering the basics of gene expression data analysis and novel approaches to data interpretation. More advanced follow-up training will take place in the autumn of this year. We hope that this training will advance studies on NSCLC and development of cancer cellular therapy, which is the main focus of research conducted at ICCVS.

In addition to the intensive training sessions, participants had the opportunity to engage in social networking at a local climbing wall, a popular activity in Grenoble.

V4 Training is a training course designed for experienced research managers working in project departments (primarily international: H2020 and Horizon Europe) exclusively at universities, scientific and research institutes in departments responsible for acquisition, management and reporting. The event was held from 11 March until 13 March 2024 and despite training opportunities, gave chance to meet people form the field, exchange knowledge, build capacity and also celebrate the 15^th Anniversary of the training organization.

Dominika Butkiewicz, from ICCVS (University of Gdańsk) participated in the course, with the main objective is to expand the knowledge, and at the same time strengthen the relevance of the activities of the staff from the project department, which in turn will contribute to increasing Polish participation in the Horizon Europe framework program.

“I had a great opportunity to take part in this exclusive training organized in Brussels by the Polish Science Contact Agency PolSCA together with the Czech Liaison Office for Education and Science (CZELO), the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in Hungary (NRDIO) and the Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development (SLORD).

The total number of participants from each country of the Visegrad Group and from countries affiliated to IGLO (Informal Group of RTD Liaison Offices) was around 35 people, including 7 managers from Poland.”

What encouraged you to register for V4 Training?

“The main motivating factor for me has always been the opportunity to develop, learn something new, gain new experience and expand my portfolio. At the same time, it was a unique opportunity to gain knowledge in the field of research projects, which is relatively new to me. I believe that this unique, international training will contribute not only to gaining new information, but also to find professional contacts.”

What were your expectations regarding the training?

“I always try to ensure that my skills and many years of experience bring benefit and added value to the institution where I work.

I believe this training enriched my knowledge about applying and implementing research projects, I met people from the field and created a network of informal support in carrying out daily tasks.”- Dominika said.

The participation was financed in the frame of the CANVAS project (grant agreement no 101079510) funded by the European Commission within the Horizon Europe programme.

The new project ERA SHUTTLE – Accelerating ERA by Sharing Unique Talents for healThy Life and Environment has started in September. Its implementation was launched at the Kick-Off meeting held in wonderful Split in Croatia. The meeting has been opened by prof. Igor Jerković, Vice-Rector for Science and Quality at the University of Split. We were delighted to join this meeting as leader of the UG project team (Izabela Raszczyk) and project manager at UG (Dominika Butkiewicz). Eight Project Partners from Croatia, Malta, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Poland met to plan, discuss and learn in order to realise all activities with success and satisfaction. ICCVS is one of the participating partners responsible for several tasks connected to capacity building and knowledge transfer, training for research talents and administrative staff.  The project is financed by the European Union in the frame of HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions. The financing granted from Horizon Europe to the consortium amounts to 3 million EUR, over 500 000 EUR is dedicated to ICCVS UG tasks.

Stay tuned for news about the upcoming activities and results of the project!

A very interesting workshop is coming this November …

Dominika Butkiewicz & Izabela Raszczyk

Between October 16 and 26, Alicja Dziadosz and Katarzyna Dziubek participated in a two-week course in animal studies, specifically focusing on patient-derived xenografting in mice. The training was organised by Dr Marina Potesta and Dr Carla Montesano as part of CANVAS project and took place in Italy at The University of Rome Tor Vergata, which is our strategic partner in the CANVAS project.

The training included both theoretical and practical aspects of work with animals. Here are the key points of the stay:

“Having no prior experience in animal work, we first learned basic animal handling and injection methods. Later, we were instructed on how to properly perform anaesthesia and approach the animal postoperative care. Finally, we proceeded to more advanced training on tumour transplantation in mice using various methods, depending on the study design and type of tumour investigated. Interestingly, in case of NSCLC tissue, the implantation success may vary between 23% and 90% depending on the method chosen for transplantation, making it a key factor for experimental outcomes,” said Katarzyna.

“Murine models are extremely valuable for the advancement of cancer studies and allow for much better similarity to the human body conditions than any other in vitro model. However, each animal study should be performed with great care to minimize animal discomfort. Moreover, having no previous experience with animal work, I realized that working with a living, moving organism is a very difficult job, also in emotional terms. This course and the people working there made me realize how important it is to put the welfare of animals first” – added Alicja.

In addition to the practical training, we participated in a workshop focused on current research projects developed at The University of Rome Tor Vergata. That included the implementation of mice studies in regenerative medicine and the impact of chemical compound in our environment on cancer development.

Interestingly, we also had a chance to meet with researchers working on the development of a hormonal vaccine to regulate the population of wild boar in Italy as a safe alternative to currently available methods.

During our free time, we explored the beautiful sites of ancient Rome, drank a lot of coffee, enjoyed pizza and pasta and of course indulged in gelato.

Alicja Dziadosz & Katarzyna Dziubek

4th International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering, gathered together the world’s innovators in immune-gene therapy in Munich, Germany on 12-14 September 2023. Professor Natalia Marek-Trzonkowska form ICCVS took part in this interesting scientific event. She had great opportunity to refresh friendships and cooperation networks. With Anke Fuchs (Technical University of Dresden) and Marc Martinez- Llordella (Quell Therapeutics)- three members of the “Action to Focus and Accelerate Cell-based Tolerance-inducing Therapies” (COST Action).

As a student and young researcher I travelled a lot – internships, workshops, conferences. Mobility is crucial for scientists, we have to discuss, learn and interact with others. Recently, due to COVID pandemics, lots of duties on-site and becoming a mum I’ve travelled less. However, at the beginning of this year I received mobility funding as one of four winners in the latest edition of the competition International Internship Programme for University of Gdańsk Young Researchers in the frame of the  Excellence Initiative – Research University (IDUB).  Thanks to this grant I spent three months at the Institute Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP), which is a part of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

During my stay in IGTP I worked in the research group of Prof. Eva Martinez Caceres, who specializes in clinical immunology and immunotherapy. Her group developed an innovative method to treat multiple sclerosis with the use of autologous dendritic cells derived from monocytes. This therapy went through all the pre-clinical stages of testing (on cells and then model organisms) and is now in stage I/IIa clinical trial.

My stay in professor Martinez-Caceres lab was very fruitful – I learnt how to induce differentiation of monocytes into dendritic cells, how to culture them and use them in functional tests. I also tested the impact of TLR9 stimulation on monocyte-derived dendritic cells, with the use of TLR9 ligand that we developed in the ICCVS. These experiments were a part of my research task: “Optimization of co-culture conditions to maximize TLR9-mediated NK cell activation” funded by the National Centre for Science in the Miniatura 6 Programme. The skills that I’ve learnt at IGTP will be very useful in my day-to-day lab work in ICCVS where we are working on immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer.

The team of professor Martinez-Caceres is very young and energetic. I felt most welcome and got a lot of useful advice on my experiments with dendritic cells. During my internship I took part in weekly meetings and journal clubs, I also gave a talk describing my research at ICCVS.

Personally, this opportunity to live in Barcelona for three months was an unforgettable experience for my family. We had a great time and managed to escape from cold Polish spring…

I recently returned from a week packed with enriching learning experiences, engaging networking opportunities, and memorable adventures in the heart of Dubrovnik, Croatia. I was fortunate to participate in the 15th Mass Spectrometry in Biotechnology & Medicine (MSBM) summer school from July 2nd to July 8th, 2023.

The summer school provided a deep dive into the fundamentals and applications of mass spectrometry (MS), spanning a diverse range of fields including proteomics, metabolomics, and peptidomics, among others. The lectures delivered by renowned scientists and the hands-on workshops offered a wealth of information. In my role at ICCVS, where I apply MS to profile proteins in cancers, this was an invaluable learning opportunity. I was able to further my understanding of the latest developments in MS, grapple with its challenges, and explore promising solutions.

This MSBM summer school was a fantastic opportunity to connect with the global scientific community. I had stimulating discussions with other students, scientists, and industry professionals, learning about their work and brainstorming potential collaborations. These conversations helped broaden my perspectives and appreciate the many ways MS is pushing the boundaries of scientific research.

Aside from the intensive scientific engagements, I had the chance to take in the calming beauty of Dubrovnik. The city, with its fortified walls and beautiful beaches, offered a tranquil backdrop to our fervent scientific discourse. The trip to Lokrum island and a hike to Mount Srđ added an extra layer to my experience, making it truly unforgettable.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the organizers of the 15th MSBM summer school. Special thanks to Prof. David Goodlett, without whom the trip to Dubrovnik would not have been possible. I want to also give thanks to Dr. Sachin Kote and the ICCVS. The learnings and memories from this event will certainly guide my future scientific endeavors and serve as a pleasant reminder of a remarkable week spent in Dubrovnik.

Kenneth Weke

Lokrum island	View of the city from Mount Srđ