Their Royal Highnesses King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium visited the VU Life Sciences Centre, where Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys presented gene editing technology.
Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas, Rector of VU, was pleased that the Belgian Royal Couple visiting Lithuania pays a lot of attention to science.
"When the Belgian Royal Family visits the country and invites the rectors of all the eleven main Belgian universities, it is a very good impulse to look for common themes and problems," said Prof. R. Petrauskas.
Prof. Petrauskas spent the morning on Tuesday presenting to the guests the scientific achievements of Lithuania at the National Centre for Physical and Technological Sciences and the VU Life Sciences Centre. The honorable guests visited the Division of Microtechnologies headed by Dr. Linas Mažutis, and the Department of Protein-Nucleic Acids Interactions headed by Prof. V. Šikšnys.
"I presented to King Philippe and Queen the technology used for gene editing, which is already being used in clinical trials to treat inherited genetic diseases. The Queen was particularly interested in the fact that viruses attack not only humans, but also bacteria, including those that are beneficial to the human body. I explained more about the fact that bacteria have protective barriers that help them survive, but the fight between viruses and bacteria is going on all the time - it is an everyday reality that we do not see, but it exists," said Prof. V. Šikšnys, who shared his impressions of the meeting with the Royal Couple and the tour they had at the VU Centre of Life Sciences.
The guests were also greeted at the VU Life Sciences Centre by the Minister of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania Aušrinė Armonaitė, the Vice-Minister of Energy Daiva Garbaliauskaitė, the Director of the Life Sciences Centre Dr. Daumantas Matulis, and the Director of the Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology Prof. Gintaras Valušis.