The Second IDIBAPS PhD Day took place on June 12, organised by the PhD Community, an association of IDIBAPS predoctoral researchers, in cooperation with the institution itself. The event, which took place in the CEK Auditorium, was attended physically by more than 100 people, while some 40 more followed the sessions online.
The event began with a welcome speech by Elías Campo, Director of IDIBAPS. Silvia Affò, a junior researcher in the IDIBAPS Liver cell plasticity and tissue repair group, then described her experiences as a PhD student, giving the participants tips about how to manage both this stage in the career in science and future working conditions.
Three workshops then took place:
- Mindfulness to combat stress caused by research, by Iñaki Martín-Subero, head of the Biomedical Epigenomics group.
- Mental health during research, by Mireia Prime and Laura Hermida of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona Psychiatry and Psychology Service.
- Practices for more sustainable research, by Jaime De La Rocha, head of the IDIBAPS Cortical circuit dynamics group and a member of its Sustainability Committee.
In the afternoon, a round table focused on scientific dissemination, with Ignacio Crespo, coordinator of the science section in La Razón newspaper and the science disseminators Nacho Roura (@neuronacho), Miquel Bosch and Agnès Pérez (of @neurofregides).
The full programme for the Second PhD Day is available at this link and the album with the photographs of the day in this link.
PhD Day also included the competition for posters and oral thesis presentations. From the 37 posters and 20 oral presentations originally submitted, shortlists of 25 and 12 respectively had been drawn up. A jury formed by group leaders Jordi Camps, Cristina Fillat, Eduard Guasch and Mercedes Fernández, and Michela Bertero, IDIBAPS Director of Strategy, selected the winners. Bertero awarded the prizes, which were gift tokens for FNAC. The final verdict was:
Poster prizes:
- First prize: Rubén Gimenez. Principal investigator (PI): Patricia Pérez Galán. Title: Patient derived follicular lymphoma tumoroids recreate cellular and extracellular matrix components and constitute a robust ex vivo system for disease modelling and therapy testing.
- Second prize: Paula Barbao. PI: Sonia Guedan. Title: Chronic antigen exposure induces CAR-T cell loss of functions and a dysregulated gene expression profile leading to treatment failure in solid tumors.
- Third prize: Jèssica Pardo. PI: Carme Junqué Plaja. Title: cMD as a sensitive measure to identify subtle microstructural cortical changes in PD patients with probable RBD (pRBD).
Prizes for the oral presentations:
- First prize: Elisa Melón Ardanaz. PI: Azucena Salas. Title: One size does not fit all.
- Second prize: Heribert Playà Albinyana. PI: Dolors Colomer. Title: A journey from chronic lymphocytic leukemia to Richter transformation.
- Third prize: Anna Mateu Bosch. PI: Cristina Fillat. Title: Gene therapy strategy with an AAV to correct glutaric aciduria type I.
The day ended with fun activities in the CEK dining room.
The first PhD Day took place in 2019. This year's IDIBAPS PhD Day was a career activity aimed at promoting the professional development and social interaction of the institution's R1 researchers. This action has been framed within the current Action Plan of the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R).
