Visits between BMC and Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia

Academic staff from the Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, Slovakia, visited the BioMedical Center (BMC), University of Iceland during 21-24 of May by a support from the EEA grants. The purpose was to promote further collaboration between the universities through the granted project: Bilateral relations and common knowledge between Slovakia and Iceland research at Universities on the topic of “Genomic instability and cancer; GenICa FBRPDI-012. The focus was on medical biology, pharmacology and regenerative medicine. During the first days of their visit a workshop between BMC and the Slovakian university was organized where several group leaders from University of Iceland introduced their research emphasis. During the following days the group visited several BMC core facilities and had meetings with group leaders.

During the week 17-23 of June a group of PhD students and principal investigators from BMC visited Slovakia. On June 18 they were introduced to the Pavol Jozed Safarik University in Kosice where scientists and teachers presented their teams and scientific results. Among the presenterse were Prof. Ing. Mária Mareková, CSc, Prof. MVDr. Ján Mojžiš, DrSc., Ing. Denisa Harvanová, PhD., Doc. RNDr. Peter Solár, PhD., Prof. RNDr. Martin Bačkor, DrSc.  The Center for Simulator and Virtual Medicine of the UPJŠ Faculty of Medicine was also presented at the seminar, where participants had the opportunity to try a new method of interactive teaching. The center provides students with the opportunity to supplement their theoretical knowledge with practical training on realistic simulators.

Another important activity of the project was the Student International Scientific Conference, which took place from June 19-21 in the High Tatras, Štrbské pleso, Hotel Sorea Trigan with 40 attendees, organized under the auspices of the dean of the UPJŠ Faculty of Medicine, prof. MUDr. Peter Jarčuška, PhD. The PhD students and young scientists from Slovakia and Iceland gave talks about their research projects and distinguished speakers were invited. 

The invited speakers were:

• Dr. Jozef Madžo, Director of Bioinformatics at Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Philadelphia, with a plenary lecture: „Epigenetically driven transposable elements dysregulation in cancer“. 
• Dr. Júlia Starková from Laboratory center CLIP, Clinics of pediatric hematology and oncology II. Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and FN Motol in Prague, with a lecture: „Metabolic Adaptations in Leukemia: Implications for Treatment Response and Drug Resistance“. 
• Dr. Stefán Þórarinn Sigurðsson from University of Iceland with a plenary lecture: „The regulation of DNA repair by epigenetics and epitranscriptomics“.

In the end of the trip June 22 the group visited the botanic garden in Kosice with guidance from academic staff at the UPJŠ Faculty of Medicine.

Research collaboration has already started between the universities that will hopefully continue in the future.