Szent-Györgyi Students mentored at BRC are still among the most outstanding fellows of the Szeged Scientist Academy

Oct 28, 2020 | News

Medical students, Valéria Meszlényi and Bernát Nógrádi have been working for 4 and 5 years at the Neuronal Plasticity Research Group of the Biological Research Centre (BRC), as Szent-Györgyi Students of Szeged Scientist Academy (SSA). The SSA was established by the Foundation for the Future of Biomedical Sciences in Szeged in 2013 to support the involvement of outstanding university students in biomedical research as early as possible. The program encourages students to become self-sustaining researchers already during their university studies. This multigenerational mentor program is considered to be exceptional both on the national and international scale. Students of the University of Szeged (USZ) with an interest in the life and biological sciences and excellent educational achievements are eligible for application to the program. The selected students (for the time being about 40 fellows, out of them 10 students are mentored by the researchers of the BRC) can begin their scientific work under the supervision of the acknowledged mentors of the USZ and the BRC parallel to their graduate studies. Directors of the SSA evaluate the university achievements, scientific progress and presentation skills of the students annually with the involvement of an independent committee. During the recently finished audit of this year, Vali and Bernát have received “excellent” evaluation for the third time back-to-back. Furthermore, Bernát was awarded for the first time the “Student of the Year” prize in December 2018 after the gala performance of the Nobel Laureate Kurt Wüthrich.

Bernát was a first-year, Vali was a second-year medical student when they were admitted to the program and joined the research group of László Siklós. Their scientific work focuses on acute and chronic neurodegeneration and the accompanying pathophysiological changes. Valéria aims to investigate the background of the most common motor neuron disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Her first-author paper, which was published this year, describes the motoneuronal pathology induced by the inoculation of blood sera from patients with ALS-specific mutations. Bernát is involved in the investigation of peripheral nerve injury-induced inflammatory changes and potential therapeutic possibilities. Since they joined the research group, Valéria published two first-author and three co-author papers and Bernát published two first-author and six co-author papers. Thus, their publication activity largely exceeds the PhD criteria of the doctoral schools, even though they are to graduate only next year. Their achievements are also recognized outside the SSA: in 2019 Valéria received the “István Apáthy Memorial Prize” of the Faculty of Medicine of USZ. This prize is awarded only to one student annually to acknowledge the outstanding scientific contributions besides excellent educational accomplishments. Also, their work was awarded with the National Higher Educational Scholarship and New National Excellence Program Scholarship three times in a row. In 2018 and 2019 they were both awarded first prize at the local Scientific Student Conference of the USZ and second prize at the national Scientific Student Conference in 2019. They presented their scientific results not only at national, but also at several international conferences so far, which led to a number of collaborations with different research groups abroad. The arranged visits of the laboratories abroad have been postponed this year due to the current situation of the pandemic.

Congratulations to both of you on the results you have achieved so far and we wish you further success.

Publications:

1. Nógrádi B.*, Nyúl-Tóth Á.*, Kozma M., Molnár K., Patai R., Siklós L., Wilhelm I., Krizbai I.A.: Upregulation of NLRP3 in motoneurons following peripheral nerve injury in mice. Frontiers in Pharmacology: 2020 (elfogadva)
2. Meszlényi V., Patai R., Polgár T.F., Nógrádi B., Körmöczy L., Kristóf R., Spisák K., Tripolszki K., Széll M., Obál I., Engelhardt J.I., Siklós L.: Passive Transfer of Sera from ALS Patients with Identified Mutations Evokes an Increased Synaptic Vesicle Number and Elevation of Calcium Levels in Motor Axon Terminals, Similar to Sera from Sporadic Patients. International Journal of Molecular Sciences: 21, 5566. 2020 doi: 10.3390/ijms21155566
3. Nógrádi B., Meszlényi V., Patai R., Polgár T.F., Spisák K., Kristóf R., Siklós L.: Diazoxide blocks or reduces microgliosis when applied prior or subsequent to motor neuron injury in mice. Brain Research: Vol 1741, 2020, 146875 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146875.
4. Mészáros Á., Molnár K., Nógrádi B., Hernádi Zs., Nyúl-Tóth Á., Wilhelm I., Krizbai I.A.: Neurovascular inflammaging in health and disease. Cells: 9, 1614. 2020 doi: 10.3390/cells9071614
5. Obál I., Nógrádi B., Meszlényi V., Patai R., Ricken G., Kovacs G.G., Tripolszki K., Széll M., Siklós L., Engelhardt J.I.: Experimental motor neuron disease induced in mice with long-term repeated intraperitoneal injections of serum from ALS patients. International Journal of Molecular Sciences: 20, 2573. 2019 doi: 10.3390/ijms20102573.
6. Patai R., Nógrádi B., Meszlényi V., Obál I., Engelhardt J.I., Siklós L.: Calcium ion, as a common denominator in the pathophysiology of motoneuron disease. Ideggyógyászati szemle/Clinical Neuroscience 70: (7-8) 247-257, 2017 doi: 10.18071/isz.70.0247.
7. Meszlényi V., Patai R., Nógrádi B., Engelhardt J.I., Siklós L.: Commentary: Calcium in the pathomechanism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – taking center stage? Journal of Neurology and Neuromedicine 2: (4) 1-4, 2017
8. Patai R., Nógrádi B., Engelhardt J.I., Siklós L.: Calcium in the pathomechanism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – Taking center stage? Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 483: 1031-1039. 2017 doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.08.089