IDWGS 2023 ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Saturday 11 February 2023 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. On this prepared medallions of two female doctors and two female medics who are engaged in researc our faculty. Doc. MUDr. Vladimíra Radochová, Ph.D. MUDr. Jana Langrová, Ph.D. Jinan Fazal Anjali Rachelkar As well as finding out what they have done or are currently doing in their research, you w what motivated them to study medicine, what they enjoy about science or what they plan to *========================================================================================= * Assoc. Prof. Vladimíra Radochová – Looking for the Answers to Questions *========================================================================================= „It's like in the fairy tale about the three nuts for Cinderella, you never know what will on the way“, comments Assoc. Prof. Vladimíra Radochová, M.D., Ph.D. from the Department of Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové and the University Hospital Hradec Králové. Assoc. Prof. Vladimíra Radochová is engaged in her clinical practice at the Department of also works as a teacher. She became interested in scientific activities while she was stud at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové. At that time, she was most interested in the periodontal and oral mucosal diseases, especially oral lichen planus, under the guidance o Ivo Dřízhal. Her main research interest to this day is the correlation between periodontal overall health and diseases of the oral cavity. „I am now specifically focusing on the imm periodontal disease, the oral microbiome and autoimmune diseases that manifest in the oral the associate professor Radochová.   A simple childhood wish and a promise to her siblings led her to study dentistry. „The sto perhaps even childishly naive. The idea of being a dentist was born in my childhood. My ol terribly afraid of the dentist and I promised her as a little girl that one day I would be she wouldn't have to be afraid in my office. And in the end, that's what happened.“ But there was still a long way to go to fulfill her dream. First in 2007 she graduated in then started working as a doctor at the Department of Dentistry of the University Hospital and as an assistant at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové. She is pleased that she can share her knowledge and experience with her students. In her o a dentist in the routine practice is all about working with your hands. „But at the clinic one sees many less commonly occurring diseases. Many diseases are not adequately researche doctor is inquiring enough and thinks about diseases in a broader context, it opens up man which we don't know the answers. And we need to look for them,“ she says, describing the d profession. Assoc. Prof. Radochová finds inspiration for hes scientific work everywhere, you can learn negative things. „There are a lot of people around you that form your interest, personalit approach to patients and work in general. To name one or two is probably impossible. If yo you are able to take something positive from everyone, even from a bad example, for your f As an example of an inspiring personality, she finally mentions Prof. Stephen R. Potter fr College London. He is a good role model for her as a doctor-scientist and a refined man at „He is such a prototype of the word professor, which is often forgotten in our country", e And what is the key to becoming a good scientist? According to Vladimíra Radochová, the mo a high frustration threshold, which seems even more important than intelligence, as well a to take risk, curiosity and teamwork. She adds that no matter how enjoyable and fulfilling burnout can affect anyone who is overly focused on work and does not allow her or his mind That's why she herself spends her time outside of work mainly doing sports, skiing and ska hiking together with her husband and daughter. But her biggest hobby is travelling which b her innate desire to explore and discover the new, the unknown and the unexplored. *========================================================================================= * Dr. Jana Langrová – Scientific Work Has Its Own Magic *========================================================================================= Dr. Jana Langrová comes from Městec Králové, the birthplace of King Přemysl Otakar II. She studying medicine as a child. After finishing her studies at the high school in Poděbrady, study at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové. „I was interested in biology, especial human body works, so that was probably the main reason why I decided to study medicine in says, adding that at the beginning of her studies she thought she would focus on paediatri „But after my second year, I started coming to the electrophysiology laboratory and I foun scientific work has its own magic. After graduating from medical school, thanks to the int the friendly team, I started working at the Department of Pathological Physiology,“ she ex been with the department for 20 years now and recently assumed the position of its head. S is diverse, because it includes a wide range of activities from teaching students, basic r possibility of applying the gained knowledge to clinical practice. Her teacher, professor Zuzana Kubová, who worked in the electrophysiology laboratory, invo scientific activities. In the laboratory, Dr. Langrová also met professors Miroslav Kuba a who were and still are passionate about their work and can motivate the researchers around herself. As she says, it is thanks to these three colleagues that she started working on v potentials (VEPs). „VEPs is an objective, non-invasive method used to assess the functional status of the vis particular, I look at various physiological parameters that can affect the nature of the r am researching how age and aging of the human body affects the processing of visual inform of this work was to determine age norms for the different types of visual stimuli used in describes. The findings were used in a number of applied research projects, for example in patients w eyesight, optic neuritis, multiple sclerosis or neuroborreliosis. Dr. Langrová even worked or children who are learning to read by using the fused reading method. She also regularly whose members suffer from a rare genetic disease of the optic nerve. Currently, Dr. Langrová is part of a team that deals with visual rehabilitation of visuall seniors with macular degeneration of the retina. This is a serious disease of mainly the c the retina, which can lead to severe visual impairment. People who suffer from this diseas central vision and are unable to focus, recognize details of faces and have difficulty rea significant change in vision is traumatic for patients. Unfortunately, as the doctor notes limited options for treating it. „We are now trying to find out how a special implanted lens or modified glasses in combina rehabilitation can help patients. During the few months that we work with patients, I am i objectifying the function of the optic nerves by using evoked potentials. Other methods we the impact of rehabilitation are reading speed measurements and questionnaire surveys to d of life,“ she explains. She would like to continue this research because she believes that it can bring new knowle people with this serious disease. „We have already found out in a previous project that le combined with visual rehabilitation significantly improves the patient's visual acuity and improve quality of life,“ she adds. *========================================================================================= * Jinan Fazal – Science Full of Transformative Experience *========================================================================================= Jinan Fazal is studying at our Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové in the 5th year of th Medicine program. She decided to be a doctor for two reasons. Firstly, she has always had sciences since childhood and secondly, as part of her hobbies, music and art, she discover also manually skilled. She considers this a good combination for her dream of becoming a s to become an accomplished plastic and reconstructive surgeon in the future. As I am also a believe this is the perfect specialty for me. I wish to focus mainly on a specific branch surgery i.e., craniofacial surgery,“ she says.   Even when she was in high school, she realized she was more of a STEM woman. Her family me involved in science. Therefore, it was not surprising that she became involved in scientif during her studies at our faculty. And with her very first research project, she won first theoretical and preclinical section of the Student's Scientific Activity (SVOČ) 2022. Her on assessing DNA damage in cell lines treated with anti-cancer drugs, under Dr. Darina Mut at the Department of Medical Biochemistry. „We essentially treated breast cancer cells with varying concentrations of a particular ch agent to measure the toxicity of the drug. By utilizing a certain biomarker, we were able the degree of toxic injury to the cells. In doing so, we have been able to conclude that w marker as a tool for early screening of genotoxic compounds and it may also have the poten research in cancer therapy and drug development,” she explains. She actively participated the laboratory experiments under dr. Muthna´s supervision and played a part in the analysi as well. As she says, it seemed like a lot of learning on the job, but she was grateful to brilliant, kind and patient teacher such as dr. Muthna.   Jinan has had a very good experience with her first research project. As she says, she can absolute certainty that it was a very transformative experience. „Under the mentorship of I acquired new skills not just in the lab, but also in critical thinking, analysis, and ev someone who had no prior interest in research, giving this opportunity a chance helped me my abilities and has further inspired me to pursue even more research projects,” she says. she is working on another project, this time under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Ilja Ta Gastroenterology Department (2nd Department of Internal Medicine), in this new project she adenoma detection rate correlation. She will be participating in SVOČ this year as well. Right now, she is mainly focusing on her final exams and trying to make the most of her ti Králové with close friends as they will all be graduating soon. However, she does plan to research, exploring multiple specialties while she still is a medical student and hasn’t s yet. „I would like to try my hand at infectious diseases, particularly the role of a certa receptor mutation in HIV resistance, once I have completed my work in the gastroenterology this year. Later in the future, I would like to focus more on clinical work but wish to co on smaller, more specialized research projects on the side. After all, to ever fulfill my becoming a craniofacial surgeon, I can’t rely on that happening on its own,” she adds. *========================================================================================= * Anjali Rachelkar – Combining a Love of Science and Medicine *========================================================================================= Anjali Rachelkar is studying in 6th year of General Medicine at our Faculty of Medicine in Her motivation to study medicine was quite straightforward – she wanted to serve people an noble profession that could provide her with the opportunity to make a difference in the l The diversity of career options offered by the medical field was another massive draw that towards it. „My journey towards studying General Medicine began after careful consideration of multipl within the field. After considering all my options, it was clear for me that this faculty suited for my needs as it provides excellent facilities and extremely knowledgeable staff, adding that all the years of studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové have be In the future, she would like to become a cardiologist because she believes it is an excit with endless growth potential through new technology and advancements as well as research What captivated her about this specialization was its ability to make tangible clinical im patients’ lives combined with a wide range of career prospects and lifestyle options. She started her scientific activities in the third year of her studies at the Faculty of M Králové. She was motivated by her love of science and medicine and the opportunity to comb her studies, she was introduced to the world of clinical research and found it fascinating I could use the knowledge gained from both medicine and research to develop new treatments and improve patient care, I was driven to become more involved in clinical research. Knowi contributions could be significant in improving patient care was a strong motivator for me As Anjali says, working on clinical research projects also helps her understand various to and gain valuable skills such as analysing data and interpreting results. Last year, she p the Student´s Scientific Activity (SVOČ) with her research on Significance of serum immuno patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and she won the clinical section with it. The study was a retrospective analysis of 178 cases, and it focused on hypogammaglobulinem as a diagnostic and prognostic marker. Anjali´s role in this project included collecting d conducting statistical analysis, and searching the literature for additional findings poin phenomenon. „The research was based on analysing immunoglobin levels at the time of diagno patients. Through our study we were able to show that hypogammaglobulinemia is a frequent time of CLL diagnosis and that it can be an important prognostic marker. This has the pote patient outcomes by allowing physicians to make more informed treatment decisions earlier journey. Our findings also contribute to clinical practice by helping clinicians better id who are at greater risk of disease progression or relapse after initial therapy has failed the impact of her work on practice.   In the future, Anjali hopes to do research into how cardiovascular health is affected by l such as diet, exercise and stress management. Her goal is to gain an understanding of the that are involved in maintaining cardiovascular health and find ways to better support pat positive changes for their long-term heart health. „Additionally, I'd like to explore the for developing new treatments and therapies for cardiovascular diseases, such as cardiac a ischemic heart disease,” she adds.