19th European Students' Conference

From September 29th until October 3rd the 19th European Students' Conference took place in Berlin, at the Campus Virchow Clinic, Charite Medical School. Young scientists from over 40 countries, mainly from Eastern and Western Europe, were invited to present the findings of their research projects to an international audience and to discuss their results with an interdisciplinary approach.

This scientific event united 397 active and passive members and further more eleven candidates for the Robert-Koch-Prize. Studies were classified into 29 sessions (plus Research Award session and Robert-Koch-Prize session). The winner of each session went over to one of the six "Winner sessions" which took place on Thursday, 2nd of October. From every session the jury selected the most promising study author who moved over to the "Final Grand". In the end, in this final group there were six young scientists.

On Friday, 3rd of October winners of the conference competed for the Research Awards and Lindau Nobel Prize Winner Meeting 2009.

Mr. Gergely Toldi
"FoxP3+ Regulatory T Cells and Their Cellular Network in the Aetiology of Preeclampsia"
Mrs. Tamara Steiner
"Moraxella catarrhalis-induced human beta-defensin-3 expression in human pulmonary epithelial cells"
Mr. Tomasz Drabarek
"Radioisotope detection of sentinel lymph nodes in localized prostate"
Mrs. Maren Kloepfel
"Early diagnosis of acute and chronic rejection in FK 506 treated rat intestine transplanted recipients"
Mrs. Margit Veronika Szabari
"Development of elastase-induced emphysema in mice"
Mr. Matej Markota
"Partial Animal Modeling of Schizophrenia"

Apart from multitude of subjects of scientific sessions organizers also enabled participants a lot of interesting lectures which were given by reknowned professors like Prof. Dr. h. c. Walther Siegenthaler, Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Samii, M. D. Professor David Nichols and many more. Thanks to them participants could see for example how the operation of a brain tumor is performed. Simultaneously PD Dr. Peter Horn and neurosurgeon Dr. med. Synowitz moderated the conversation between students and the operating team in the live-OT (operating theatre). Everyone could feel free to ask!
Participants could also improve theirs presentations skills during Prof. Dr. med. Dirnagls' lecture ("Zen and the art of presentation") or get helpful hints, specific English vocabulary etc. during medical English workshops which were given by Sabine Boehm. An abundance of interesting lectures, workshops and opportunities to visit a lot of beautiful places or museums in Berlin gave the opportunity for everyone to find something for themselves. In addition, every day, participants had the possibility to meet excellent professors and what is more - they had a huge chance to discuss theirs research ideas or to get answers to their questions.

Organizers also took care of providing students delicious food and hot drinks during coffee breaks. Furthermore, well-developed public transport caused that nobody had problems with arriving to The Charite University. Finally, the organization of this conference was on the high level. So if you want to present your study and discuss your research with excellent professors, get valuable hints how to improve your presentation or if you want to see how real science looks like just come to Berlin for The European Students Conference!