On October 19 and 20, 2023, the 7th International Doctoral Student Conference was held at the Nencki Institute. The organizers of this year's event were Dominika Malińska, Beata Siemiątkowska, Dorota Dymkowska, Justyna Janikiewicz and Prof. Joanna Szczepanowska (Head of the Warsaw-4-PhD School).

As every year, the Nencki Institute's Doctoral Students Conference was an extraordinary opportunity to learn about current research projects, hone skills in presenting one’s research and expand acquaintanceship.

During the 2 intensive days, participants had the opportunity to listen to 17 longer scientific presentations and 22 short talks, as well as learn about the results of colleagues, presented in the form of scientific posters. This year, colleagues from the Czech Academy of Sciences - PhD students from the Institute of Physiology and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry - also presented their research achievements. The conference was highlighted by inspiring speeches of honorary guests - prof. Mathias Schmidt (Max Plank Institute of Psychiatry) and prof. Andrzej Dragan (Institute of Physics, University of Warsaw). There was also a special session on the possibilities of financing research trips for doctoral students, during which the current offer of the Humboldt, Fulbright and EMBO programs was presented. Traditionally, the conference ended with an integration meeting, which was an opportunity to make new friends and continue interesting discussions started during the scientific part.

Each year we award the best speeches presented at the Conference. Below is the list of this year's winners.

Long talk:

1. Adrian Sówka ( Laboratory of Molecular Medical Biochemistry)
2. Pegah Taheri (Laboratory of Molecular Basis of Behavior)
3. Ziemowit Sławiński (Laboratory of Neuroinformatics)

Short talk:

1. Raman Samusevich (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences)
2. Krutika Thakkur (Laboratory of Protein Homeostasis)
3. Magdalena Stańczyk (Laboratory of Neurophysiology of Mind)

Poster presentation:

1. Paulina Kamińska (Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology)
2. Agata Pytyś (Laboratory of Cell Biophysics)
3. Marko Mitrović (Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences)

Congratulations and see you next year - at the 8th International PhD Students Conference!