On October 17th, 2014 the inauguration of the 2014/2015 academic year of the PAS Ochota BioCentre PhD Programme was celebrated in the lecture hall of the Nałęcz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering PAS. More than 400 PhD students study their degrees at the following six Polish Academy of Sciences institutes which together form the PAS Ochota BioCentre Consortium: Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the Nencki Institute.

The guests were greeted by Prof. Piotr Zielenkiewicz, Director of the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS. Prof. Michał Kleiber, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, prof. Marian Kuźmierkowski, Dean of Division IV Technical Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences, Prof. Maria Ciemerych-Litwinienko, Dean for Research, Faculty of Biology, Warsaw University, and directors of institutes forming the Consortium were in attendance.

The next speaker was Cheirperson of the PhD Student Council Dominik Cysewski, who presented the agenda of the inauguration and asked PAS President to speak. Prof. Michał Kleiber wished all the PhD students sucess and awarded the best PhD theses defended in the last academic year with diplomas and statuettes. Among the honored were the following students from the Nencki Institute:

dr Marine Yeghiazaryan – thesis supervisor – dr hab. Grzegorz Wilczyński, prof. nadzw.

dr Jakub Mieczkowski – thesis supervisor – prof.dr hab. Bożena Kamińska-Kaczmarek

dr Monika Kusio-Kobiałka – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Ewa Sikora

dr Anna Oroń – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Szeląg

dr Justyna Karolczak – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Maria Jolanta Rędowicz

dr Urszula Wasik – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Anna Filipek

dr Andrzej Foik – thesis supervisor – dr hab. Wioletta Waleszczyk, prof. nadzw.

dr Jan Potworowski – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Daniel Wójcik

dr Aleksandra Janusz – thesis supervisor – prof. dr hab. Leszek Kaczmarek

The assembled guests heard the lectures by prof. Andrzeja Udalskiego: "Extrasolar Planetary Systems" and prof. Virginijus Siksnys (Vilnius University)"CRISPR-Cas craze: from microbial antiviral defence system to genome editing".

The ceremony closed with a poster session and a social meeting of PhD candidates.