ESR Kick-Off Meeting and Vaccines & Vaccinology Course (23rd - 25th September 2020)

To welcome the recently recruited Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to the team, the BactiVax Training Network held the all-team kick-off meeting between 23rd and 25th September 2020. The event, hosted by Prof. Johannes Huebner from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), had a busy agenda over 3 days (see full agenda in the image caption below). The programme included a course on vaccines and vaccinology, with sessions focused on the discovery of vaccines, the role of adjuvants in stimulating protective immune responses, or the use of state-of-the-art technologies in identifying novel antigens. The ESRs also had the opportunity to hold short oral presentations, sharing their background, expertise and expectations from their PhD with the rest of the team.

One of the sessions most enjoyed by ESRs was the interactive workshop on mental health and coping with stress and expectations during the PhD, which was held by Dr. Varinka Voigt, psychologist at the LMU Department of Paediatrics. During this session, students discussed and learnt about prioritising their mental health and wellbeing, and also received advice on how to effectively handle stress and deal with daily tasks.

The kick-off meeting also provided training on Intellectual Property, creativity and innovation in research. The session was held by Prof. Christian Heinis from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, BactiVax PI with vast experience in the marketing of academic research outputs, and Dr. Jan B. Krauß, Patent Attorney at Boehmert & Boehmert and Affiliate Instructor of Law at the University of Washington. Both speakers explained basic concepts of Intellectual Property and shared their wealth of expertise in the exploitation of research outputs generated by academia and industry.

Special thanks goes to all our speakers, event organisers at LMU - Prof. Johannes Huebner, ESRs Océane Sadones and Enisa Smlatić, and all event participants.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860325.

Check out the meeting agenda here.

 

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Congratulations to #BactiVax researchers @irenejm6, @maite_s96 and Assoc. Prof. Siobhán McClean on their recently published review on Pseudomonas aeruginosa #vaccine development! 🦠 P. aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant, hospital-acquired pathogen that can cause severe and difficult to treat infections. Link to open access paper here & in bio: https://t.co/l1y9Ugh5Sj?amp=1
BactiVax - Siobhán McClean