NEWS

SDIR SCIENTIFIC DAYS

PROMOTION OF SDIR ACTIVITIES AND STRENGTHENING COOPERATION AMONG CANCER RESEARCH CENTERS IN SERBIA

September 20, 2022, State University of Novi Pazar, Serbia and online

SDIR Scientific Days is a new initiative of the Executive Committee of SDIR and is envisioned to become traditional – organized once or twice per year. Lectures from the SDIR Scientific Days will be streamed online and all registered SDIR or EACR members will be able to follow the proposed Program of the event.

The first SDIR Scientific days event will be held on September 20, 2022, at the State University of Novi Pazar, Serbia. Members of the Executive Committee of SDIR will be present in person to familiarize themselves with the resources (both material and human) for cancer research at the State University of Novi Pazar. Ongoing research will be presented by Prof. NatašaĐorđević, Prof. Tanja Soldatović and Prof. Milan Dekić. They will also present their research capacities, scientific interest, and the possibility of cooperation with other cancer centers and laboratories in Serbia.

Registration for the event:

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Sep 20, 2022 11:00 AM Belgrade, Bratislava, Ljubljana

Register in advance for this meeting:

Link: us06web.zoom.us

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

This meeting is sponsored by the European Association of Cancer Research

AACR Annual Meeting

Marijana Pavlović, PhD, Research Assistant at the Department of Experimental Oncology from the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia (IORS) received the prestigious Global Scholar-in-Training Award (GSITA) from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). AACR offers GSITA awardto support the participation of the promising early-career scientists in the AACR Annual Meeting. This award is intended to enhance the education, training, and professional network of scientists from the countries building cancer research capacities who are engaged in basic, clinical, translational, or epidemiological cancer research.Marijana was selected as one of the fifteenrecipients of this year’sAACR GSITAaward in recognition of a meritoriousproffered paper selected for presentation at the AACR Annual Meeting in April 2022 in New Orleans (Louisiana, USA). The results presented at the conference in the form of poster entitled Nischarin agonist rilmenidine inhibits pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell migration and invasionare part of the REPANCAN project led by Dr Jelena Grahovacand funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia and Horizon 2020 MSC grant.

Link to 2022 AACR GSITA awardees: www.aacr.org

The EACR25, 25th Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research

The EACR25, 25th Congress of the European Association for Cancer Research in Amsterdam, Netherlands was a great venue for us to hear the latest developments in basic and translational cancer research. We especially enjoyed symposia on cancer microenvironment and advances in immunotherapy. EACR 25 was also an exceptional opportunity for us to present our current research and meet potential collaborators.

We want to thank SDIR for the opportunity to attend this important meeting, which has been a great professional experience for us.

Jelena Grahovac and Marijana Pavlović, Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.

Marijana Pavlović Marijana Pavlović i Jelena Grahovac

Participation report – Tamara Babić, Research Assistant

„Summer School in Translational Cancer Research” was held from 8th until 12th of October and was organized under the umbrella of Cancer Core Europe in collaboration with the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and was supported by the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR). Meeting took place on the southern cost of Portugal in Albufeira. Participants were young career researchers and medical doctors on their PhD studies or who have just obtained PhD degree, that work in the field of translational cancer research. Owing to the scholarships provided by Serbian Association for Cancer Research and Cancer Core Europe, I have got the opportunity to participate in Summer School. My name is Tamara Babic and I am investigating the role of SMAD4 alternative promoters in development and carcinogenesis at the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering.

Main topic of the Summer School is translation from basic cancer research to clinical trials and its results implementation in the health care systems. Well recognized lecturers dealt with up-to-date topics related to precision medicine in diagnosis and treatment of malignant diseases, clinical studies in oncology, altered metabolism in cancer cells, biomarkers for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malignant diseases, infection-tumor relation and immunotherapy. Furthermore, there were lectures about scientific influence in designing relevant laws and importance of scientific diplomacy.

Spending whole day together, participants had the opportunity to exchange the knowledge informally on the Portuguese coast or during lunch time. Especially interesting was the fact that participants are into quite different science branches, from bioinformatics and deep learning, through modern clinical studies, to basic research in cancer molecular biology which includes different model systems. Lecturers were available for and interested in discussion during lectures, but also during special social activity “Meet the professor” after dinner time.

Participants presented their research as posters or short oral presentations. Summer vibes in October and fantastic lectures and discussions provided useful and funny experience. I am very thankful for being awarded a travel grant provided by SDIR for attending Summer School. Without the grant I would not be able to participate and gain such an experience.

Tamara Babić, Research Assistant
Institut za molekularnu genetiku i genetičko inženjerstvo
Vojvode Stepe 444A, Beograd
tamarakovacevic@imgge.bg.ac.rs


Summer School in Translational Cancer Research“, Albufeira, Portugal

Participation report – Dr Mirjana Branković-Magić, SDIR president and Dr Ana Krivokuća

Dr Mirjana Branković-Magić, president of Serbian Association for Cancer Research and Dr Ana Krivokuca, member, were invited by the organizers to give the lectures on 7th Multidiscipilinary Cancer Research & 1st Basic Oncology Congress that was held from 11th to 14th October 2018 in Izmir, Turkey.

Dr Mirjana Branković-Magić gave the lecture “Hereditary breast cancer- looking beyond BRCA genes” where she presented the results of the research on genetics of hereditary breast and ovarian cancers that has been conducted at the Laboratory for Molecular Genetics at the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia for more than 10 years. Thanks to the travel grant from Serbian Association for Cancer Research, Dr Ana Krivokuca had the opportunity to give the lecture on the complex process of variant annotation in the era of next generation sequencing. She presented this process and the way it has been conducted at the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia through the lecture “Complexities of variant annotation using NGS”.

Besides the opportunity to present their research, Dr Mirjana Brankovic-Magic and Dr Ana Krivokuca had the opportunity to meet and hear the lectures from all over the world. This visit made important contribution to the long term collaboration that exists between Serbian and Turkish Associations for Cancer Research.

Ana Krivokuća and SDIR president Mirjana Branković-Magić Ana Krivokuća SDIR president Mirjana Branković-Magić