Excellence

Our associate prof. dr. Borut Božič received the award »Prometheus of science for exemplary donations«, that Slovenian scientific foundation is awarding. The award was given for many years’ support of Festival of science, Independent monetary supports for young researchers and other projects of the Foundation and for spreading the culture of donation.

Our associates assistant Darja Kolar and prof. dr. Samo Kreft received the award »Prometheus of Science for Excellence in Science Communication«. The award was given to them for their Hungry Pumpkin (Lačna Bučka) project. As stated in the justification, they use "an innovative approach to communication about food of plant origin". Their most notable post on calcium in foods reached over 57,000 readers in just a few months, with readers sharing it 456 times among their friends and liking it 2352 times.

On October 9 2019 Prof. Dr. Marko Anderluh gave a lecture at the renowned institution ETH Zurich entitled: "Inhibition of O-GlcNAc cycling enzymes - the cell's metabolic gauge". The lecture was a part of Drug Discovery Network Zurich seminar series (https://www.ddnz.uzh.ch/en.html), where ETH invites renowned researchers to present their research achievements. Prof. Dr. Marko Anderluh presented the results of the research carried out within the EU PhD4GlycoDrug project.

The six-member panel selected the winner, Dr. Urban Košak from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, who will travel to Berlin on November 8 for the international closing event of Falling Walls Lab. Dr. Košak won with a breakthrough idea of ​​a new drug for alleviating the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

On September 16, 2019, as part of the Cutting Edge Conference, a Science Slam took place, with young researcher Martina Durcik from the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry among the finalists. She called her presentation "The Battle against Superbacteria."

On the 27th of August 2019 the UL FFA hosted our first Summer school for high school pupils, which is organised by the Career centre of University of Ljubljana. We prepared 3 mini workshops for the pupils of 2nd and 3rd year, through which they got their own insight into our 1st stage studies (Cosmetic science and Laboratory biomedicine) and Uniform master’s study programme of Pharmacy.

Researchers from the Chair of Clinical Biochemistry (Kodrič Klemen, Zupan Janja, Kranjc Tilen, Mlakar Vid, Marc Janja, Lovšin Nika) have published an article entitled “Sex-determining region Y (SRY) attributes to gender differences in RANKL expression and incidence of osteoporosis.” in the renowned journal the Experimental and Molecular Medicine. Researchers have studied the molecular mechanisms of osteoporosis. They found that the male specific SRY protein affects the regulation of bone turnover through the regulation of TNFSF11 gene expression. The male protein SRY has been shown to affect increased bone density in males and protect males from osteoporosis. This is the first study to explain gender difference in bone quality at the molecular level.

The 6th International CEEPUS Summer School 2019 was organized by the CEEPUS network CIII-SI-0611: “Novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to complex genetic disorders” and Faculty of pharmacy, University of Ljubljana. It took place in Student dormitory and hostel Portorož, Slovenia, between July 24th and 29th 2019. The summer school was attended by 42 participants from 8 countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Czech Republic , Kazakhstan and Palestine) – 9 teachers and 33 undergraduate and postgraduate students of laboratory biomedicine, medical biochemistry, medicine and pharmacy.

The 21st EPSA Summer University 2019 was held from 16th to 21st July 2019 in Portorož. This annual EPSA project gives pharmaceutical students from all over Europe an insight into current and innovative pharmacy topics, focusing on the relaxing atmosphere, accompanied by a quality educational programme. This year's topic "Joining forces with other professionals for better healthcare" featured various workshops and soft skills trainings, which were focused on interprofessional collaboration and education.

Among the individual winners of this year’s Regional BioCamp are also Ardita Veseli and Jurij Zdovc from University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Pharmacy, The Chair of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics. Ardita Veseli is also a member of the winning team, together with two other students from our faculty, Rok Hribšek and Anže Zidar.