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CCBIOs 5th Junior Scientist Symposium

At this semester’s first CCBIO Junior Scientist Symposium September 17th, there was again large interest in participating at the seminar. More than 40 registered for the whole seminar and even more participated at selected presentations.

Bjørn Tore Gjertsen teaching in the auditorium.
Professor Bjørn Tore Gjertsen reminisced back to the glory days as a student when he enjoyed playing and competing with the high level brass band Eikanger Bjørsvik.
Photo:
CCBIO

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Inspirational lecture by Principal Investigator

New to this seminar, was the “inspirational lecture”, given this first time by Professor Bjørn Tore Gjertsen. To the audience’s amusement, Professor Gjertsen shared glimpses from his journey spanning in time from being a pre-student and an eager trumpet player, through the time of his considerations of choosing studies and research focus, to his views on what it takes to go all-in for research and running a research group succsessfully, as he has accomplished.

Actually, it turned out it was the renowned brass band Eikanger Bjørsvik that attracted him to Bergen in the first place. Bjørn-Tore gave a humorous, interesting and truly inspiring lecture, with insightful perspectives on what it takes to be a good researcher and how to build and expand a well-functioning research group. Many questions from both younger and more experienced researchers indicated a huge interest in the issues Bjørn Tore discussed. The organizers plan to follow up on this concept, and are already working on a lecture of a similar format for the program for the next meeting, November 26th

 

Presentations by CCBIO PhDs and post Docs

The remainder of the program covered a wide range of topics. Anne Blanchard, postdoc in the research group of Professor Roger Strand, gave an insightful presentation on how the pharmaceutical industry influences what is being published. The CCBIO Junior Symposia are enriched by the ethical and philosophical perspectives that Anne and her colleagues from Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities bring to this forum.

Further, PhD students and postdocs from several other CCBIO groups presented their research. Topics of the presentations included novel treatment strategies for resistant prostate cancer, breast cancer research on the intermediate filament Nestin as biomarker of angiogenesis and aggressive tumor features, and recent insight on the complex regulatory role of the PTEN pseudogene. Two of the presentations highlighted novel technologies for studying the tumor microenvironment. 

 

The next symposium will be November 26th

The CCBIO Junior Symposia are held twice every semester, with presentations by PhDs and post Docs, followed by plenary discussions. The next CCBIO Junior Scientist Symposium will be arranged Nov 26th.

CCBIO PhD students and postdocs are encouraged to participate at the seminars, and anyone interested are welcome to attend. PhD students are also recommended to register for the PhD course CCBIO-901 (https://www.uib.no/en/course/CCBIO901), that is approved by 3 credits for the educational program of the PhD studies.