2019
L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO International Rising Talents 2019 Award
On February 11th, 2019, the L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO for Women in Science programme announced the International Rising Talents - 15 most promising women scientists, among them was Dr. Urtė Neniškytė, a neuroscientist at Vilnius University’s Life Sciences Centre (VU LSC). Dr. Urtė Neniškytė is also 2017-year winner of the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science fellowship.
Dr. Urtė Neniškytė studies how brains develop in early childhood (from 6 months to 6 years old), with reference to anomalies that can lead to serious mental illnesses. She is currently exploring why excessive synapses (connections between neurons) sometimes remain, rather than being removed or “pruned” for optimum efficiency.
L’Oréal-UNESCO Baltic For Women in Science fellowship
In 2019, Milda Alksnė, a doctoral student at VU Life Sciences Center, was awarded the prestigious L’Oreal-UNESCO Baltic “For Women in Science” fellowship. Her research area is regenerative medicine, namely bone tissue engineering using 3D printing technology. Development of artificial tissues as a part of regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary area of science, linking biomedical, technological sciences and engineering. It is one of the most exciting and rapidly growing areas in biomedical engineering, Scientists around the world face a major challenge in creating artificial bone tissue - the newly constructed tissue does not undergo angiogenesis processes, i.e. does not form a vascular network, which is vital for tissue function. The main goal of the Milda Alksne Grant project is to create composite 3D printing scaffolds that promote not only bone formation but also angiogenesis.
Somerfeld-Ziskind Research Award
Dr. Aurelijus Burokas has been awarded the Somerfeld-Ziskind Award, which is granted annually by the US Society for Biological Psychiatry to recognize outstanding research investigations in biological psychiatry. Dr. A. Burokas studies the role of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in a variety of psychological processes and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Winners of Gold Medal in International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition in 2019
In 2019, a team of students from Vilnius University won the gold medal at prestigious Synthetic Biology competition iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) in Boston, MA, USA, and was nominated among the best teams in four categories: best foundational advance, best presentation, best new composite part and best Wiki page.
The competition took place in Boston, USA, on October 31– November 4. Undergraduate Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team included 14 students of Vilnius University (VU), the majority of them studying at VU Life Sciences Center. This team presented project “Colight” - a multi-level collection of optogenetic tools for modular bacteria control.
iGEM is the largest and most prestigious international Synthetic Biology Competition, with more than 300 teams from universities around the world, including such prestigious universities as MIT, Harvard University, Oxford University, Imperial College, Yale University and others.
Vilnius iGEM team participates in the iGEM competition since 2015. In 2015, 2016 and 2018 Lithuanians won Gold medals. In 2017, Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team won the Grand Prize of iGEM competition.
2018
The 2018 KAVLI PRIZE IN NANOSCIENCE AND A GOLD MEDAL
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters granted its biennial Kavli Prize in Nanoscience for 2018 to three of CRISPR’s pioneers - Virginijus Šikšnys at the Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre, Emmanuelle Charpentier at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany, and Jennifer A. Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley, USA - “for the invention of CRISPR-Cas9, a precise nanotool for editing DNA, causing a revolution in biology, agriculture, and medicine.”
Professor Šikšnys has made a major and sustained contribution to the understanding of the CRISPR-Cas systems. Professor Šikšnys was also awardedthe Warren Alpert Prize and the Novozymes Prize.
The Kavli Prize is established in partnership between The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, The Kavli Foundation (United States), and The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. It recognizes scientific achievements in Astrophysics, Nanoscience and Neuroscience.
Virginijus Šikšnys Received an Honorary Degree of the University of Bristol
On July 16, Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys of Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre (VU LSC) received a Doctor of Science accolade of the University of Bristol (JK).
Collaboration between Vilnius University and the University of Bristol continues through the Wellcome Trust and European Commission projects. Three young VU LSC researchers PhD Giedrius Sasnauskas, PhD Mindaugas Zaremba and PhD Tomas Šinkūnas did their internships in Prof. Stephen Halford’s laboratory.
Bioinformatics from VU Life Sciences Centre are among the Best in the World
The team of bioinformaticians from VU Life Sciences Centre - Dr. Česlovas Venclovas, Dr. Justas Dapkūnas and Dr. Kliment Olechnovič – excelled in the Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) competition. CASP is a biennial worldwide experiment that objectively measures state-of-the-art in computational protein structure modelling and provides unbiased comparison of methods developed by different research groups. According to the independent CASP assessment, the Life Sciences Centre team achieved the best results in modelling protein complexes. In addition, their method for estimation of model accuracy (VoroMQA) was also among the best performing at CASP.
2017
The Novozymes Prize
The 2017 Novozymes Prize was awarded to Prof. Dr. Virginijus Šikšnys, Head of the Department of Protein-DNA Interactions at the VU Life Sciences Center, and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Germany, for their contributions in the development of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool – one of the most important scientific breakthroughs that opened new opportunities for researchers to edit and modify genes of various organisms.
The Novozymes Prize is awarded to recognize outstanding European research or technology contributions that benefit the development of biotechnological science. The Novozymes Prize consists of a funding amount for the awardees’ research (DKK 2.5 million) and a personal award (DKK 0.5 million). An additional part of the Prize is an international symposium within the awardees’ field of research.
Nuotrauka
The Lithuanian-American Innovation Award
Four VU LSC researchers – Dr. L. Mažutis, Prof. Dr. V. Šikšnys, Dr. G. Gasiūnas and Dr. T. Karvelis – were awarded the Lithuanian-American Innovation Award. Dr. L. Mažutis received the award for developing a technique for the efficient isolation and sequencing of single cells in collaboration with scientists from Harvard University. Prof. Dr. V. Šikšnys, Dr. G. Gasiūnas and Dr. T. Karvelis were awarded for the development of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which enables the editing of genomes. Their technology patent has been licensed to DuPont Pioneer, the world’s leading developer and supplier of advanced plant genetics. Vilnius University and DuPont have entered into a multiyear research collaboration to advance the development of the technology.
The Lithuanian-American Innovation Award was established by the American-Lithuanian Business Council (ALBC), the Baltic American Freedom Foundation (BAFF) and the US Embassy in Vilnius as a reward to a Lithuanian individual, organization, university or firm that have developed cutting-edge technologies or solutions in collaboration with US partners.
http://amlithbc.org/Award/2017recipients/
Nuotraukos
A New Member of EMBO
On June 16 EMBO announced that Prof. S. Klimašauskas has been elected a member of EMBO and joined the group of more than 1 700 of the best researchers in the world. “EMBO Members are leading scientists working across all of the life sciences. They also strengthen the research community in Europe and beyond through their international collaborations and connections,” says EMBO Director Maria Leptin.
EMBO Members are actively involved in the execution of the organization’s initiatives by evaluating applications for EMBO funding and by serving on EMBO Council, Committees and Editorial Boards. Prof. V. Šikšnys has been elected an associate EMBO member in 2016, making it two representatives of Lithuania at this prestigious organization
L`Oréal-UNESCO Baltic “For Women in Science” Fellowship
Dr. Urtė Neniškytė was awarded the prestigious L`Oréal-UNESCO Baltic “For Women in Science” fellowship on 26 May 2017 with the support of the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO and the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. It is a reward for women scientists who have achieved outstanding contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge and to the benefit of society. Dr. Neniškytė is the first scientist in Lithuania ever to have received this award. She obtained her PhD at the University of Cambridge (UK) in molecular developmental neuroscience and is currently investigating molecular mechanisms that guide synaptic pruning in the developing brain during brain circuit maturation.
Nuotrauka