Dies academicus: MED MUNI student awards

Rector's Award for Outstanding Students of MU Master's Degree Programmes

The award was presented to Julia Anna Kent, a General Medicine student who excels in her scientific work. She has been working on this since 2018 as part of the P-PooL research programme at  Faculty of Medicine MU. First, under the guidance of Prof. Irena Rektorová, Ph.D., she worked on the Applied Neuroscience project at CEITEC, and since 2021 she has been working on a project at the ICRC - Stroke team under the guidance of Prof. Robert Mikulík, M.D., Ph.D., and Mgr. Ing. Petra Šedová, Ph.D.

In 2022, she published twice as first author and co-author (in Q1 and Q2). For this activity, the student won the 1st place of the Dean's Award of the Faculty of Medicine of MU in the category for outstanding scientific performance in 2023. Due to her interest in science, she was selected for the WhyByNe motivational internship programme by MEP Martina Dlabajová, during which she got the chance to shadow the then director of the institution, Dr. Stokin. She was also selected as one of the Young Talents in the IRENE COST network for her publication under the supervision of Prof. Mikulík and Dr. Šedová. During her studies, she participated as an audience member in several professional conferences from different societies for neurology (EAN, DGN).

During her studies, Julia Anna completed many different internships and several pre-promotional practices abroad, in addition, she went to Vienna for 1 year within the Erasmus+ programme. The student is an active member of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), where she prepares various student activities for the annual congress as part of the Student Task Force, and beyond, with the aim of fostering student enthusiasm for neurology. Since the end of 2023, she is a member of the Pre-Graduate Curriculum Task Force of the EAN, where she is involved in the preparation of recommendations for the unification of the curriculum for the teaching of the subject of Neurology in European medical schools. She has also worked as a first aid lecturer at the MED MUNI Simulation Centre in the Student as a Teacher programme. She has excellent academic results with an average of 1.14.

"Receiving the Rector's Award and the opportunity to participate in Dies academicus was a great honour for me. The day became unforgettable for me not only because of its festive content, but also because of the participation of loved ones who are part of my life. At this point, I would like to thank my family and my friends who always stand by me and on whom I can always rely. Without them, this success would not have been possible. A huge thank you also goes to my supervisor, Dr. Petra Šedová, who has accompanied me for more than 3 years on my journey in academic and personal life and without whom I would not be where I am today. I would like to thank her for her guidance, patience, kindness, motivation, and most of all her infectious smile that always accompanies her and brightens everyone's day. Finally, I would also like to thank my alma mater MU, my teams at EAN, and all the staff at CEITEC and FNUSA-ICRC who have been so supportive during my studies," says Julia Anna Kent.

Volunteering Award

"IFMSA has many projects going on as part of the organisation whose importance is certainly not insignificant. All of the work is done on a voluntary basis outside of school duties, so it is a great honour for us to have been awarded the Rector's Volunteer Award for the two most visible projects and activities. These are great events that aim to raise awareness of prevention and health," says Marie Tormová, local president of IFMSA Brno.

There were 15 award winners in total: Martin Bartoš, Kateřina Bartlová, Jozef Diškanec, Anna Fundárková, Karolína Holíková, Matej Jankovich, Iva Jankurová, Dominika Karasová, Ivana Kravárová, Gabriela Lyčková, Nela Pelánková, Tomáš Sedláček, Anna Sedláčková, Tereza Šimáková, Marie Tormová.

The older, long-standing and stable activity is the annual preparation of large awareness-raising activities, always in the spring of the event called World Health Day and in the autumn World Diabetes Day. This reminds the public of the importance of taking care of their own health and the need for prevention in health care. Marie Tormová, Ivana Kravárová, Dominika Karasová, Nela Pelánková, Jozef Diškanec, Anna Fundárková, Karolína Holíková, Matej Jankovich, Iva Jankurová, Gabriela Lyčková, Tomáš Sedláček and Tereza Šimáková were awarded for this activity.

"We already had an excellent foundation from our older colleagues, for which we have to thank them very much. Our role was to maintain and expand the events with new stations that were in demand. We are pleased to have been able to work with dermatologists or physiotherapists. The events are held in the Olympia shopping centre, so attendance is always high. All age groups can find a place at the events. Over a hundred volunteers always take their turn during the weekend. They can try their hand at communicating with patients and explain to them in human language the need for prevention and a healthy lifestyle. We are very grateful for the award and I think it is always a great opportunity to learn how to work together across differences of opinion when organising. We will value this experience in our future work teams. I think the greatest prize for us are the friendships that have been made while organising the events," says Jozef Diškanec, describing the functioning of the events.

The second, younger event aimed mainly at the younger part of the public is the SpoluSafe project, which is dedicated to spreading awareness about HPV infection. Last year, the Safe RUN was held for the first time as part of the project, which focused not only on this awareness, but also on the importance of gynaecological cancer prevention. These activities generally break down the society-wide shyness to talk about the topic of STDs and the need to dedicate space for preventive check-ups for all ages. The award for this project went to Martin Bartoš, Kateřina Bartlová and Anna Sedláčková.

"I feel like it's very easy to burn out in the first half of your studies because of the quantum of learning. Few students realize that even with the minimal knowledge we have, we can positively impact the lives of those around us. That is the value that has a two-way effect. Educating the general public about prevention is one of the cornerstones of health care. It is also an area in which medics can assist very effectively. And this is also seen in our project SpoluSafe, which aims to raise awareness of HPV and its prevention. Working on social media, in schools and at events for the general public gives us the opportunity for immediate feedback, where we can see that awareness is really important. Especially for young teenagers to start their sexual life safely - safe," says Martin Bartoš, who has been part of the project since his first year of study at MED MUNI and has become its face and soul. This follows the successful launch of this campaign, which was founded and started to be shared publicly by Anna Pelzová, then a student and now a graduate, based on her personal experience.

Thanks to Martin's passion, SpoluSafe became the most successful project of IFMSA CZ and won the first place in the SCORA Activities Fair category. This award was presented at the IFMSA International General Assembly in Estonia, raising awareness of the Czech Republic, Brno and Masaryk University students around the world.

For practical reasons, 3 representatives of the organization and the awarded projects went to receive the award: Marie Tormová, Karolína Holíková and Martin Bartoš. "The nervousness during the Rector's Award ceremony was soon replaced by enthusiasm and celebration in a friendly atmosphere. Apart from the opportunity for self-development and volunteering, the organisation has the great feature of connecting passionate people with similar hobbies. I think that although these activities were singled out, the award is a symbol that shows that all our activities have meaning and reach," concludes Marie Torm.

Rector's Award for Outstanding Students of MU Doctoral Degree Programmes

Marcos González López, MSc. under the supervision of his advisor Jan Křivánek in the Biomedical Sciences program, is focusing on basic aspects of developmental biology and new approaches in regenerative medicine. He received this award as one of only three PhD students from the entire university. Marcos is, among other things, the face of the MU Faculty of Medicine's science and research promotional video In Total Detail.

The award was given for his long-term highly superior performance, which resulted in his first-authored paper "Spatiotemporal monitoring of hard tissue development reveals unknown features of tooth and bone development", published in August 2023 by the prestigious journal Science Advances (1st decile, Q1, Ipact factor: 14.98). This work was widely acclaimed by the international scientific community and the media abroad and within the Czech Republic. Popular Science (USA), The Analytical Scientist (USA), European Animal Research Association, Czech Television, Czech Radio, Idnes.cz, Novinky.cz, Téma weekly, Czech Science to the World, 21st Century, hnonline.sk.

This paper presents a newly developed technique called BEE-ST (Bones and tEEth Spatio-Temporal growth monitoring approach). This methodology allows to accurately monitor and quantify the development, regeneration, remodelling or healing of any type of calcified tissue in all vertebrate groups, both in space and time. The work also provides new information on the growth dynamics of continuously growing mouse teeth, on the influence of soft and hard diet on tooth root development, or shows the process of natural skull development or the dynamics of healing after injury. However, the work is not limited to the mouse as an experimental mammalian model, but uses other model organisms to reveal the dynamics of bone and tooth growth in reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish. The published approach represents a highly efficient, reproducible and versatile tool that opens up a range of new possibilities in developmental biology, in monitoring the healing process of bones and teeth, or in disease modelling. The developed method can also be easily adapted for broader research purposes. One of these aims is the use in tissue engineering methods, which can improve regenerative medicine approaches.

Marcos is absolutely deservedly the first author of this publication and has been involved from the very beginning until the moment of its acceptance for publication. It is important to mention that the student nominated for this award is only halfway through his PhD studies and this paper was only accepted for publication in his second year, at the end of the 3rd semester of his studies. In addition to this important publication, Marcos' highly superior performance can be attested by two other co-authored publications in the research team of Assoc. Mgr. Jan Křivánek, Ph.D., participated in. In addition to his publications, he has presented the results of his work at four major international conferences and has received awards for his work at some of them.

"Through these activities, as well as his positive attitude and active involvement (including ongoing and planned internships) in ambitious projects with significant representation of research teams from abroad (USA, Finland, Austria, Sweden, UK, France), Marcos is making a good name for the Faculty of Medicine and the entire Masaryk University. I expect that by the time he completes his PhD, Marcos will have published at least one or two more major first-authored publications and will have contributed to many more. He was a unique candidate for this highly motivating award, which in my opinion he clearly deserves," adds the nominator for the award Assoc. prof. MVDr. Aleš Hampl, CSc. from the Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, MU.