"Goran Ljubijankić" Foundation prize for the best MSc work in 2016

Jovana Ilic has received "Goran Ljubijankić" Foundation prize for the best MSc work in 2016 "Investigation of anticancer activity of tetraphenyl stanan bound to mesoporous material SBA-15 in human and mouse melanoma model in vitro". The work was done under the supervision of Daniejla Maksimović-Ivanić, Research professor, Immunooncology group, Department of Immunolog.

Lectures on the topic: "Microbiota in health and disease"

We would like to announce lectures on the topic: "Microbiota in health and disease" that are organized by the Kolarac Center for Lectures and our Department of Immunology. The lectures will take place at Kolarac on January 20th, January 27th, February 3rd and February 10th.

The Best Theme for Day of Immunology Award

Immunology Group from our Institute was awarded with Best Theme for Day of Immunology Award by the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). The award was presented at the International Immunology Congress in Melbourne, Australia on August 23rd, 2016.

Immunotherapy raffle: which cell gets it all?

Report for the campaign for the Day of Immunology - SERBIA

WHAT WE DID...

Scientific part of the celebration of this year’s Day of Immunology started with a meeting of Serbian Immunological Society held in Serbian Academy of Sciences (April 27th – 28th, 2016). Also, we have advertised Immunotherapy at the COST meeting held at the University of Belgrade Rector Palace (May, 9th-11th) dedicated to Immune cell therapy (A FACTT – Action to Focus and Accelerate Cell-based Tolerance-inducing Therapies).

Popularization of the importance and advantages of immunotherapy was performed through media both on TV and radio, as well as through their web pages: Radio Televizija Srbije – National Radio-Television (http://goo.gl/ah3rd2), Studio B Television (Dr. Srđa Jankovic, https://goo.gl/Izd6lT, http://goo.gl/G2VBfo), Radio Belgrade 1 (Dr. Ljiljana Sofronic-Milosavljevic http://goo.gl/VyM2ct), Radio Belgrade 2 (Scientific program – Solaris, Dr. Ivana Stojanovic and Dr. Djordje Miljkovic, http://goo.gl/bNhR8h). Further, information about immunotherapy was disseminated through Facebook pages “Reč, dve o imunoterapiji” (A word on immunotherapy) and “Imunologija IBISS”. Also, we have made a game “Immunity” and a quiz “Which cell of the immune system are you?” that was disseminated in schools and through the Facebook pages.

We have organized a session about cells with children from pre-school (around 30) and they provided us with valuable illustrations of immune cells that we used for advertising immunotherapy in the following activities such as interactive performances in High-schools (School of Pharmacy Belgrade, 5th and 13th Belgrade Gymnasium, Savremena Gymnasium Belgrade, Veliko Gradište Gymnasium), then with the members of the Serbian Molecular Biology Society Youth, and in Petnica Science Center (organization for extracurricular, informal science education http://www.petnica.rs). These performances were given from May 18th till June 10th. Before the performance, an introduction on immune system and immunotherapy was given. The performance itself was presented as a competition among the cells of the immune system (macrophage, dendritic cell, NK cell, T and B cell) and each cell described its functions in the immune system and the reason why it should be declared the best cell for immunotherapy. After the performance, the audience took a test which allowed us to deduce which of the participants were careful listeners and also they voted for the best immunotherapeutic cell. Only votes from those who were successful at the test were taken in final consideration. After the voting, discussion about the results and the current possibilities and achievements of immunotherapy was done. Total number of 290 students watched the performance, and, importantly 92.1% were successful with the test. The results of the students’ votes are given in the Chart 1 (for each school and as a total). Photos from the performances are provided as supplementary material. In addition, a video on immunotherapy was made when we attended Savremena Gymnasium and it is publicly available on YouTube (https://goo.gl/eXGJpF). Finally, Dr. Srdja Jankovic gave a lecture on vaccination at the Kolarac People’s University that promotes education and popularizes science achievements in Serbia (http://www.kolarac.rs/en/). The audio recording of the lecture can be found at http://goo.gl/2JkKtz.

The people we reached... The estimated number of people reached is as follows: through TV and radio - 1 million (38.84 % of the population in the Belgrade region of Serbia), through Facebook pages - 5.000, through direct contact with students and attendants of the lecture - 500, through direct contact with colleagues - 300.

Major results... Most of the people in Serbia were not aware of immunotherapy before our action. Now, we have spread the word about potential benefits of immunotherapy in general, and particularly about cell-based immunotherapy. We have also used this action to promote vaccination, thus opposing growing anti-vaccination movements. Finally, we informed general population about aims and activities of the Serbian Immunological Society, EFIS and IUIS. The students that we have reached are potential future leaders in Serbia, including science, medicine and policy making. We are convinced that after accepting basics of immunotherapy they will utterly support immunotherapy studies and application. Also, we have had discussions with clinicians about the importance of immunotherapy and about possibilities to introduce it in various forms in Serbia in near future. Thus, with this action we have set the basis for building the facilities for cell-based immunotherapy in Serbia.

"Goran Ljubijankić" Foundation prize for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of molecular biology for 2015

Dr. Mirna Bulatović won the prize from "Goran Ljubijankić" Foundation for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of molecular biology for 2015 with doctoral dissertation entitled "Evaluation of Antitumor Activity of 6-(triphenylstannyl)hexan-1-ol Loaded in SBA-15 Mesoporous Nanostructured Material in the Mouse Model of Melanoma In Vitro and In Vivo".

National award "For Women in Science" for 2015 to Tamara Saksida

Tamara Saksida, PhD, Senior research associate at the Department of Immunology, is a laureate of a national award "For women in science" for 2015. Founders of this award are company L'Oréal Balkan, National committee for UNESCO and Ministry of education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia.

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Telefon: +381 11 20 78 300
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Email: ibiss@ibiss.bg.ac.rs

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