Spotlight on Life Sciences
Two-day GSLS symposium Eureka! 2024 co-organized by HIRI PhD students
On October 10 and 11, the Eureka! symposium took place in building D15 and attracted numerous PhD students as well as renowned international scientists to the Würzburg Medical Campus. The event was organized by doctoral students from the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS) at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU). Anastasiya Grinko from the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg (HIRI) and Denise Johnson from the Rudolf Virchow Center (RVZ) headed the organizing committee.
Over the course of two days, participants had the opportunity to listen to exciting talks by international guest and student speakers. Among the speakers was HIRI PhD student Yuanjie Wei, who shared her research on how host RNA-binding proteins regulate viral replication. Bernardo Papini Gabiatti from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology (Zoology I) and Tim de Martines from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology stood out as two of the student speakers, winning prizes for their presentations.
In addition to talks, the PhD students presented their current research data and results as posters. This allowed them to discuss their work with colleagues and leading scientists from various disciplines. HIRI PhD student Lina Günter's research was particularly impressive and her poster earned her the first prize. Omkar Valanju from the RVZ was awarded the second poster prize.
As part of a career session, life science graduates – including HIRI group leader Franziska Faber and Anke Sparmann, scientific writer at HIRI – gave insights into their career paths.
To encourage creativity, the symposium included an image and writing contest. Katrin Sinning from the Institute of Systems Immunology won the literature competition. Denise Johnson from the RVZ submitted the best picture.
The event concluded with a quiz night, which provided additional dialogue and entertainment.
