International Awards
2020
Top performance in CAPRI (Critical Assessment of PRedicted Interactions) and CASP (Critical Assessment of Protein Structure Prediction) competitions
A team of bioinformaticians from the VU Life Sciences Center - Česlovas Venclovas (team leader), Justas Dapkūnas and Kliment Olechnovič – participated in CASP14 and CAPRI competitions running in parallel in summer of 2020. The team shared the first place jointly with two other groups in CAPRI and were ranked second in the category of protein complex structure modelling in CASP. The same team was the first in both CASP and CAPRI competitions in 2018.
CASP is a biennial worldwide experiment for protein three-dimensional structure prediction from its amino acid sequence taking place since 1994. The aim of CASP is to help advance the methods of computational protein structure modelling. More than a 100 research groups from all over the world participate in CASP and objectively test the accuracy of protein structure prediction methods developed by the research groups. CAPRI is another community‐wide initiative inspired by CASP and running since 2001. CAPRI is focusing entirely on prediction of structures of protein complexes.
More about the experiments:
CAPRI
https://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/complex-pred/capri/
CASP14
https://predictioncenter.org/casp14/index.cgi
L’Oréal Baltic For Women in Science Fellowship Programme
In 2020, we greeted with pride two young scientists, Rima Budvydytė and Dominyka Dapkutė, who were given fellowships of the L'Oreal Baltic program For Women in Science.
In 16 years’ time, since the L´Oréal Baltic For Women in Science fellowship programme has been established, 60 talented women scientists in the Baltic countries were awarded. The aim of this program is to encourage young talented scientists to continue their research and to honour their contribution to social progress, as well as to inspire more young women to choose a career in science.
Rima Budvytytė, a senior researcher at VU Life Sciences Centre, was recognized for her research that focuses on investigation of biochemical and biophysical processes triggering neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s on molecular level. Her project aims to investigate the interaction between disordered proteins and phospholipid membranes that may lead to the understanding of the causes of neurodegeneration and the development of new therapies and new diagnostic methods to diagnose them at the earliest possible stage of the disease.
Dominyka Dapkutė, a doctoral student in biophysics at the VU Life Sciences Centre and a junior researcher at the Laboratory of Biomedical Physics of the National Cancer Institute, was recognized for her research into the ways of introducing nanotechnology-based teranostatic measures (combining diagnostics and therapy) into the cancerous tissue by using unique cells of the human body, mesenchymal stem cells. These interdisciplinary studies address the current gaps in cancer diagnostics and treatment and can make a significant contribution to the ongoing fight against cancer, as well as provide innovative insights at the fundamental level.
The Grand Prize in (iGEM) Competition in 2020
The Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team won the grand prize and became the best iGEM team in the largest and the most prestigious International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) in 2020. In addition to the Grand Prize of the competition, VU students won gold medals and were nominated in 8 additional prize categories, becoming the winners also of the Best Environment Project and Best Measurement.
The Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM outdid more than 250 teams from universities around the world, including teams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University as well as William & Mary University and many other prestigious universities.
In this year’s competition Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team presented the FlavoFlow project dedicated to the topic of exogenous fish infections. It is estimated that infections caused by Flavobacterium genus bacteria can kill about 70% of fish in fish farms in just 72 hours. For this reason, it is essential to identify the pathogen as accurately and quickly as possible. To solve this problem the team developed a rapid detection tool for early diagnosis of diseases in fish farms. At the same time, seeking to lay the foundations for various solutions to the problem, the Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team focused on the development of platforms for the treatment and prevention of exogenous fish infections.
Lithuanian representatives have been participating in the iGEM competition since 2015. In 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team won gold medals, in 2018 also bronze medal by undergraduate team and in 2017, like this year, the Grand Prize of the competition.
2020 iGEM Team students: Eglė Vitkūnaitė, Auksė Kazlauskaitė, Austėja Sungailaitė, Edvinas Jurgelaitis, Emilija Radlinskaitė, Emilis Gaidauskas, Liepa Šiupšinskaitė, Kamilė Liucija Vainiūtė, Paulius Sasnauskas, Monika Gineitytė, Barbora Vasiliauskaitė.
Team leader: Ieva Lingytė
Primary PI - Rolandas Meškys
Instructors: Denis Baronas, Povilas Šėporaitis
Advisor: Paulius Toliušis
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.
Winners of Gold and Bronze Medals in International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition in 2018
In 2018, two teams of students from Vilnius University – one team comprised of undergraduate and post-graduate students - participated in the Synthetic Biology competition iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) in Boston, MA, USA, and won gold and bronze medals.
The projects of both teams were ranked among the top five breakthrough projects in their age categories.
The overgraduate Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team (leader - molecular biology student Laurynas Karpus) won a gold medal. This team has developed a completely new approach based on microfluidic technologies and DNA modifications, which allow characterization of enormous amount of biological components and their combinations quite efficiently. In order to protect the invention before the competition, students submitted a patent application.
The undergraduate team (leader - biochemistry student Justas Ritmejeris) developed the SynDrop - synthetic droplets for membrane protein research system and won a bronze medal, as well as was nominated for the Best Foundational Advance Project and Best Model. The SynDrop was designed using innovative microfluidic technologies and cell-free protein expression systems. This allowed utilizing liposomes as nanofactories for the synthesis and various modifications of membrane proteins. The undergraduate team submitted a patent application for this invention as well.
iGEM is the largest and most prestigious international Synthetic Biology competition, held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, which attracts the best and brightest students from universities around the world, including such prestigious universities, as MIT, Harvard University, Oxford University, Imperial College, Yale University and others.
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
The Grand Prize in the iGEM Competition
The Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM team won the Grand Prize and received a gold medal as well as three special awards – Best New Basic Part, Best New Composite Part and Best Part Collection – in the largest and most prestigious Synthetic Biology competition iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine), where more than 300 students’ teams from leading world universities worked all year long to solve real-world challenges by building genetically engineered biological systems with standard, interchangeable parts.
In 2017, our team competed with their project SynORI – a framework designed to make working with single and multi-plasmid systems precise, easy and more functional. This system will help with everyday lab work, and it can also be used for biological computing and the assembly of large protein complexes or metabolic engineering.
Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM
National Awards
2020
Medals of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas
On 6 July 2020, on commemorating the coronation of King Mindaugas and the National Anthem in Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, the President of the republic of Lithuania, presented deserving persons with state awards. It is most gratifying that even three representatives of our community – Kristina Daniūnaitė, Eglė Lastauskienė and Rokas Abraitis – were awarded for their contribution to the fight against the new coronavirus pandemic.
Rokas Abraitis, Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania
Eglė Lastauskienė, Gitanas Nausėda, President of the republic of Lithuania
Kristina Daniūnaitė, Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania
Medal of the Prime Minister of the 17th Government of the Republic of Lithuania
Four members of the Life Science Center community – Marius Dagys, Kastis Krikštopaitis, Gintaras Valinčius, Aurelija Žvirblienė – received medals from the Prime Minister of the 17th Government of the Republic of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis For Joint Work for Lithuania.
Letter of Thanks from the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania S. Skvernelis
The Life Science Center community showed initiative during the pandemic by contributing to the testing of COVID-19 samples for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection and providing advice to decision makers and public. Marius Dagys, Kastis Krikštopaitis, Gintaras Valinčius, Aurelija Žvirbliene. received Letters of Thanks from the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Saulius Skvernelis.
Medals of the Minister of Health For a Significant Contribution to the Health of the Lithuanian People
The medals For Significant Contribution to the Health of the Lithuanian People created especially for this occasion were awarded to the management of the Life Sciences Center (LSC) - director Gintaras Valinčius and deputy director Rokas Abraitis - and the scientists - Eglė Lastauskienė, Kristina Daniūnaitė, Aurelija Žvirblienė, as well as VU Council member Raimundas Balčiūnaitis. In awarding the medals, the Minister of Health Aurelijus Veryga thanked for the great efforts and teamwork, done by specialists and volunteers from various institutions working towards one goal to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus COVID 19.
Medal For a Significant Contribution to the Health of the Lithuanian People
Winners of the Competition The Best Doctoral Thesis in 2019
In November 2020, the Lithuanian Union of Young Scientists announced winners of the competition The Best Thesis in 2019. The event is sponsored by the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda.
39 scientific works on natural, technological, medical and health and agricultural sciences were submitted to the competition. Eleven authors of the best works became laureates, including two GMC scientists:
Aleksandr Osipenko, Development of Methods for Labelling of Small Non-Coding RNAs (Physics), VU;
Marijonas Tutkus, Fluorescence Microscopy of Single Molecules for Protein Dynamics Studies (Physics), who in his doctoral thesis was actively collaborating with the scientists from the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology.
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2019
Dr. Česlovas Venclovas Attained Distinguished Professor Status
In 2019, Dr. Česlovas Venclovas attained the status of Distinguished Professor of Vilnius University.
Dr. Česlovas Venclovas works in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. He strengthens Lithuania’s prestige in this field and has a clear international visibility of scientific publications and high-level project activities. Mr. Venclovas leads PhD and postdoctoral fellows.
The special status of a Distinguished Professor was approved by the Vilnius University Senate in 2017. This status is given to the VU scientists who demonstrate outstanding, internationally and nationally recognized achievements, who help to improve a specific field of science or study areas and who develop their own “schools” in their research fields. The status is also an acknowledgment as their activities benefit not only the University but Lithuania as well.
Professor Emeritus Status for Eugenijus Butkus
In 2019, Prof. Eugenijus Butkus was awarded this prestigious and honorary title for his exceptional contribution to academic leadership and his achievements.
Rector’s Award for Science
For significant achievements in science in 2019 four researchers of the Life Sciences Center, Prof. Rolandas Meškys, Prof. Artūras Petronis, Prof. Česlovas Venclovas and Dr. Rapolas Žilionis received Rector’s Award for Science,
The Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas
On July 6, H.E. Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania, on the Occasion of the Statehood Day awarded the state orders and medals to honour the citizens of Lithuania and foreign nationals in recognition of their outstanding performance and merits to the Republic of Lithuania and the promotion of Lithuania’s name in the world. Dr. Urtė Neniškytė and prof. Sonata Jarmalaitė were awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas for their merits to Lithuania.
Dr. Urtė Neniškytė (second on the left), Dalia Grybauskaitė (in the middle)
Dr. Sonata Jarmalaitė and Dalia Grybauskaitė, Prezdent of Republic of Lithuania
The Best Doctoral Thesis
President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda granted awards to Miglė Kazlauskienė and Justina Kazokaitė for the best doctoral theses defended in 2018. The purpose of this award is to distinguish an outstanding doctoral thesis and to motivate young doctoral students to carry out research of the highest quality and importance to society. This competition is one of the most important events in the academic community.
INFOBALT Personal Scholarship
In 2019, a young scientist Milda Alksnė was awarded INFOBALT personal scholarship.
The INFOBALT, an association of information and communication technology (ICT) companies, has established this scholarship to support top-level research in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and intensive use of ICT in research in other subject areas by young researchers, as well as to promote closer cooperation between Lithuanian science and business communities.
The Young Scientist and Doctoral Student Competition is organized every year by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. In 2019, Dr. Giedrė Valiulienė won the Young Scientist Award, and Jevgenija Jakubovska was granted Doctoral Students’ Award.
Dr. Giedrė Valiulienė Dr. Jevgenija Jakubovska
2017
The Lithuanian Science Award
In 2017, five VU LSC scientists from the Institute of Biotechnology have been awarded The Lithuanian Science Prize. Prof. Dr. Saulius Klimašauskas was awarded for his series of research “Molecular Tools for Epigenomic and RNomic.” Prof. Dr. Virginijus Šikšnys, Dr. Giedrius Gasiūnas, Dr. Tomas Šinkūnas and Dr. Tautvydas Karvelis were awarded for their series of research “Research of CRISPR-Cas Systems: From the Immune System of Bacteria toward the Technology of Gene Editing.” The Lithuanian Science Award is granted every year by the Research Council of Lithuania for research and development projects of national importance.
The Global Lithuanian Leaders Award
For bringing scientific innovations to Lithuania, Dr. Linas Mažutis has received the Global Lithuanian Leaders Award, which is given to Lithuanians and Lithuania-related individuals who have been contributing to the prosperity and global standing of Lithuania.
The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas
In 2017, Prof. Dr. Virginijus Šikšnys received the Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. It is the Lithuanian Presidential Award that honors the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices.
VU Rectors Award
The VU Rectors Award for Excellence in Teaching was granted to Dr. Edita Sužiedelienė. The VU Rectors Award for Excellence in Science was granted to Dr. Gintautas Tamulaitis and Dr. Linas Mažutis.
Vilnius University Awards
2020
Vilnius University Grant Rewriting the Code of Life
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for developing the precise genome-editing technology - CRISPR/Cas9 technology that has a revolutionary impact on the life sciences and enabled researchers to change the DNA code of living organisms with extremely high precision and over the course of a few weeks.
Vilnius University marked the Nobel Prize week by granting distinguished Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys, a scientist who was eligible for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and his team a sizeable grant Rewriting the Code of Life for major contribution to world-class scientific discoveries and the promotion of Vilnius University in the world.
Back in 2011, V. Šikšnys and his team were the first in the world to show that the CRIPSR-Cas9 system can be transferred from a bacterium, having such a protection system, to bacteria that do not have such a system, and it can function perfectly in a new environment.
Virginijus Šikšnys’ contribution in the development of CRISPR-Cas9 technology was recognized by such high-profile awards as Warren Alpert Foundation Prize in 2016, Novozymes Prize in 2017 and Kavli price in 2018, the latter sharing with Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna.
Virginijus Šikšnys, Rimvydas Petrauskas, Rector of Vilnius University
Rector’s Awards for efforts during first COVID outbreak
The Finis Anni Academici celebration at the end of the academic year became a special opportunity to celebrate the merits of the Life Sciences Center (LSC) community to the university and Lithuania. For the first time, the Rector of the Vilnius University and the Senate expressed special thanks to three faculties, the Life Sciences Center, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics. This gratitude is dedicated to the professionalism, personal initiatives and responsibility of the community members, demonstrated at a crucial time for Lithuania and the world, contributing to the successful management of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Personal Rector’s thanks went to four members of the LSC community: Rokas Abraitis, Kristina Daniūnaitė, Eglė Lastauskienė and Aurelija Žvirblienė. The Rector also thanked the volunteers, who contributed to the fight against the new coronavirus pandemic.
Rector’s Award for Science
Three researchers of the Life Sciences Center – Darius Kazlauskas, Edita Kriukienė and Virginijus Šikšnys – received Rector’s Award for Science for their exceptional scientific achievements, contribution to the development of science at the University and in Lithuania, and raising the prestige of university science in the world in 2020.
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