Biomania

The Biomania Student Scientific Meeting & EUSynBioS Symposium is taking place on 30th September - 1st October 2019 in Brno. This year's conference is organized in cooperation with EUSynBioS, The European Association of Synthetic Biology Students and Postdocs. As always, the conference is dedicated to students and early career researchers working on topics thematically related to Biotechnology and Biomedicine.

Active participants will have chance to present the results of their own projects and develop their presentation skills in relaxed informal atmosphere. Entries will be divided into sessions which will be announced based on scope of received abstracts. Best presentation in each session as well as poster wins a valuable prize. Language of the conference is English.

Conference is held under the auspices of doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kašparovský, Ph.D.
Dean, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University

Register for the conference now

Venue

Brno Observatory and Planetarium, Kraví hora 2 – Brno, Czech Republic

Important deadlines and information

• Date: 30th September & 1st October 2019
• Registration !EXTENDED!: from 1st June 2019 to 30th August 2019 (Active participants) or 13th September 2019 (Passive participants). Maximum number of participants is limited. Early registration is recommended.
• Deadline for abstracts: !EXTENDED! Till 30th August 2019 - please send your abstracts to marketa.wayhelova@biomania.cz. Abstract has to have an exact form, so please respect our instructions for active participants.
• Conference fee: (i) Active Participants: Regular Fee - 1000 CZK (40 EUR) / Reduced Undergraduate Student Fee - 750 CZK (30 EUR). Please pay the conference fee by bank transfer till 2nd September 2019. Undergraduate students may apply for a reduced fee by sending a proof of Bachelor student status to marketa.wayhelova@biomania.cz, otherwise Regular Fee will apply (see details below). (ii) Passive Participants: 500 CZK (20 EUR). Please pay the conference fee by bank transfer till 16th September 2019.
• Be careful when filling registration form – especially name, affiliation and email address. These data will be presented on your conference badge. Once filled, cannot be changed!

Scientific committee

• Prof. RNDr. Renata Veselská, Ph.D., M.Sc.
• Prof. RNDr. Zbyněk Prokop, Ph.D.
• Assoc. Prof. MVDr. Aleš Hampl, CSc.
• Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Jakub Neradil, Ph.D.
• Assoc. Prof. Stanislav Obruča, Ph.D.
• Assoc. Prof. Monika Vítězová, Ph.D.
• Assoc. Prof. Tomáš Vítěz, Ph.D.

Organizing committee

• Mgr. Pavel Dvořák, Ph.D. (Faculty of Science, MU, Brno)
  chairman
• Adam Amara (University of Manchester, UK; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Mgr. Martin Benešík, Ph.D. (Faculty of Science, MU, Brno)
• Mgr. Tomáš Buryška, Ph.D. (ETH, Zürich, Switzerland)
• Mgr. Barbora Burýšková (Faculty of Science, MU, Brno; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Sebastian Lopez Castellanos (Max Planck Institute, Marburg, Germany; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Stefano Donati (Max Planck Institute & SYNMIKRO, Marburg, Germany; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Cléa Lachaux (INSA Toulouse, France; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Joanna Sadler (University of St Andrews, UK; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• RNDr. Jan Škoda, Ph.D. (Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Australia & Faculty of Science, MU, Brno)
• Mgr. Dana Štveráková (Faculty of Science, MU, Brno)
• Huseyin Tas (CNB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Kostas Vavitsas (University of Athens, Greece; EUSynBioS Steering Committee member)
• Mgr. Markéta Wayhelová (Faculty of Science, MU, Brno)

Key Speakers

Invited Key Speakers

Martin Pumera (!CANCELLED! due to a serious family reason)
Director of the Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots; University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague
Micro and Nanorobots: Autonomous Self-Powered Machines with Size between Viruses and Bacteria

Marek Mráz
ERC Starting Grant holder & Research Group Leader, CEITEC, Brno
Regulation of B Cell Receptor signalling in B cell leukemias: novel mechanisms and therapeutic implications

Lenka Besse
Laboratory for Experimental Oncology, Kantonsspital St Gallen, Switzerland
Drug resistance and drug repurposing in multiple myeloma

Louise Horsefall
Senior Lecturer in Biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, UK
The Biological Upcycling of Metals

Jakob Schweizer (FREE ENTRY - All invited)
Scientific Coordinator of MaxSynBio, Max Planck Research Network for Synthetic Biology & Member of the network Synthetic Biology & Bauhaus (Berlin, Marburg, Magdeburg, Paris, New York)
Synthetic Biology and Bauhaus: common concepts?

Day 2 - Breakout Sessions Leaders

Nico J. Claassens
Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Arren Bar-Even at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology

Nemanja Stijepovic
European Ambassador for the iGEM Foundation

Joanna Sadler
BBSRC Discovery Fellow working in the Wallace lab at the University of Edinburgh, UK

Programme

Final Programme

• DAY 1
  
• 8:30–9:30 Registration & Poster mounting
• 9:30–9:45 Opening of the Conference
• 9:45–10:30 Key Lecture - K-01 - Marek Mráz: Regulation of B Cell Receptor signalling in B cell leukemias: novel mechanisms and therapeutic implications
• 10:30–12:00 Session I – Biomedicine
  • 10:30–10:45 T-01 - Volodymyr Porokh: Black box of human reproduction – understanding peculiarities of human preimplantation development
  • 10:45–11:00 T-02 - Zuzana Trebichalská: Analysis of human oocyte ultrastructure by advanced electron microscopy technologies
  • 11:00–11:15 T-03 - Jakub Sumbal: A 3D in vitro model of mammary gland lactation and involution
  • 11:15–11:30 T-04 - Lucie Pešková: The role of microRNA cluster miR-183 in human retinal organoids
  • 11:30–11:45 T-05 Adéla Kratochvílová: Inhibiton of Caspases in Mouse Osteoblastic Cell Line
  • 11:45–12:00 T-06 Šimon Farkaš: Precise modulation of Wnt pathway during differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells blocks epithelial-mesenchymal transition which significantly improves efficiency of mesoderm formation and endothelial differentiation
• 12:00–13:15 Lunch
• 13:15–14:00 Key Lecture - K-02 - Lenka Bešše: Drug resistance and drug repurposing in multiple myeloma
• 14:00–15:30 Session II – Biomedicine 2
  • 14:00–14:15 T-07 - Mária Krchniaková: Effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors combined with novel thiosemicarbazone iron chelators on cell lines derived from pediatric solid tumors
  • 14:15–14:30 T-08 - Iva Synková: Molecular analysis confirmed C926T-KCNQ1 variant to be pathogenic and the first founder mutation associated with long QT syndrome in Central Europe
  • 14:30–14:45 T-09 - Eliška Svobodová: Effect of intronic mutations on pseudoexon inclusion – a pilot study
  • 14:45–15:00 T-10 - Martin Černý: Composition and Prevalence of Methanogenic archaea during Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
  • 15:00–15:15 T-11 - Eva Chocholová: Looking at the health of past populations through the lens of human dental calculus
  • 15:15–15:30 T-12 - Aliaksei Chareshneu: NACHRDB: solving the puzzle of structure-function relationships in nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs)
• 15:30–16:30 Poster Session I / odd poster numbers presenting*/ + Coffee Break
• 16:30–17:45 Session III – Biotechnology
  • 16:30–16:45 T-13 - Alžběta Baráková: Comparative study of plasmids carrying mcr-1 gene in Gram-negative bacteria from raw meat products
  • 16:45–17:00 T-14 - Jan Mičan: Computational Enzyme Design of Haloalkane Dehalogenases for Yperite Degradation
  • 17:00–17:15 T-15 - Tomáš Fiala: Chemical targeting of voltage sensitive dyes to specific cell types in the brain
  • 17:15–17:30 T-16 - Andrea Tomečková: Use of AFM (atomic force microscopy) methods for bioapplication
  • 17:30–17:45 T-17 - Dominik Hrebík: Cryo-EM Structure of Phage P68: From Head to Tail
• 18:00–19:00 (!CANCELLED! due to a serious family reason) Key Lecture - K-03 - Martin Pumera: Micro and Nanorobots: Autonomous Self-Powered Machines with Size between Viruses and Bacteria
• 19:00-19:30 EUSynBioS General Meeting
• 19:30–23:00 3D Movie & Conference Party with Live Music
  
  
• DAY 2
  
• 8:30–9:30 Mendel Museum Excurcsion
• 10:00–10:15 Opening of Day 2
• 10:15–11:00 Key Lecture - K-04 - Louise Horsfall: The Biological Upcycling of Metals
• 11:00–12:00 Session IVA – Synthetic Biology
  • 11:00–11:30 T-18 - Nico Claasens: Towards a circular carbon economy – interfacing electrochemistry and (synthetic) microbial metabolism
  • 11:30–12:00 T-19 - Fani Ntana: A sesquiterpene synthase from the endophytic fungus Serendipita indica catalyses formation of viridiflorol
• 12:00–13:30 Lunch
• 13:30–15:00 Breakout Sessions
  • A – Synthetic metabolism for sustainability? with Nico Claassens
  • B – The iGEM Foundation with Nemanja Stijepovic
  • C – Equality and equity with Joanna Sadler and Louise Horsfall
• 15:00–16:00 Poster Session II / even poster numbers presenting*/ + Coffee Break
• 16:00–17:00 Session IVB – Synthetic Biology
  • 16:00–16:20 T-20 - Milada Kambová: Bacterial transcriptional switch ON/OFF in vitro system using modified nucleobases
  • 16:20–16:40 T-21 - Ondřej Vávra: CaverDock: A Molecular Docking-Based Tool to Analyse Ligand Transport through Proteins
  • 16:40–17:00 T-22 - Rayyan Tariq Khan: Fully Automated Pipeline for Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction
• 17:15–18:00 (FREE ENTRY - All invited) Key Lecture - K-05 - Jakob Schweizer: Synthetic Biology and Bauhaus: common concepts?
• 18:00–18:30 Announcement of the Best Presentation Awards and Poster Awards, Closing Remarks
  
  * Please check your poster number at registration. Posters should be mounted during Day 1 not later than 30 minutes before the Poster Session I starts, and should not be removed until the end of Poster Session II. Please dismantle your poster before the start of the Key Lecture K-05 at 17:15, Day 2.

Conference fee

• All types of conference fee include conference materials including Book of Abstracts, coffee breaks and lunch boxes during two days of the conference and free entrance to Conference Party on 30th September

Active Participants

• Regular Fee: 1000 CZK (40 EUR) / Reduced Undergraduate Student Fee: 750 CZK (30 EUR)
• Regular Fee is applied for all registrations. In order to apply for Reduced Undergraduate Student Fee, a proof of Bachelor student status has to be sent to marketa.wayhelova@biomania.cz. Please note that you may pay the Reduced Undergraduate Student Fee only after you received a confirmation email stating you are eligible to register as an undergraduate student.
• Please pay the conference fee till 2nd September 2019. Foreign participants may pay in place in EUR.

Passive Participants

• Regular Fee: 500 CZK (20 EUR)
• Please pay the conference fee till 16th September 2019. Foreign participants may pay in place in EUR.

Conference book

Conference book with ISBN will be edited by MU Publishing. Please respect deadline for Abstracts. Abstract has to have an exact form, so please respect our instructions for active participants.

Instructions for active participants

Abstract

• It is necessary to prepare an abstract for your presentation or poster and send it till 30th August, 2019 to marketa.wayhelova@biomania.cz.
• Title of your abstract is the same as the title of your presentation or poster.
• Abstract must follow rules written below.

Form of abstract
Please refer to a sample abstract to address the required format of your abstract. We recommend to use the sample abstract as a template when writing your own abstract.

The abstract must be written in English without any formatting (except italic for scientific species' names) as this will be deleted prior to being published. Except graphical changes, abstracts will be reproduced as submitted and unchanged in The Conference Book.
Minimum abstract length in total (including title, names of authors and affiliation) is 150 words, maximum length is 300 words. Abstracts longer than 300 words will be rejected without being evaluated. Try to avoid using reference citations in text. Figures, graphs or pictures can be used only exceptionally and their size will be reduced to fit the size of an appropriate text area of 300 words as a maximum.
The name of the presenting author should be indicated with an asterisk (*). The abstract must contain the full names of contributing authors in order of the authorship and full affiliations of authors identified with superscripts (1). Abstracts should briefly outline the main features, results and conclusions as well as their general significance.
Changes to your abstract cannot be made after final submission deadline. Please proofread your abstract carefully before a submission. This includes adding authors or correcting authors names or affiliations.

Presentation

• Please, try to summarize the main ideas of your work in 10-12 minute long presentation so the rest of the time (up to 5 minutes for each speaker) can be dedicated to the free relaxed discussion with the audience.
• It is necessary to prepare an abstract of your presentation.
• Presenters should arrive in the session room at the latest 20 minutes before the session is scheduled to begin in order to install and set up their presentation data.
• Data are accepted on USB memory stick. The session room computers are equipped with a Windows™ operating system and Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat Reader. We highly recommend having a back-up pdf version of yours PowerPoint presentations.

Poster

• Each author is responsible for setting up and removing his/her poster according to the conference schedule. Please setup your poster at the latest 30 minutes before the session starts. Please remove your poster after the conference ends.
• The poster panel is provided for each poster presentation. The maximum usable area for each panel is about A0 format - 84 cm (width) x 119 cm (height). Technical equipment necessary for installation of the poster onto the poster board will be provided on-site. The conference staff will be prepared to help you with the installation.
• It is possible to let your poster hanging on the poster board during the whole conference. During a dedicated poster session, authors will have the opportunity to accompany their posters, present and discuss them with conference attendees.

Conference Party

Conference Party is taking place in the meeting venue on the evening of 30th September.

Contacts

• marketa.wayhelova@biomania.cz – abstract acceptance; communication with participants and lecturers
• pavel.dvorak@biomania.cz – fundraising, communication with partners and sponsors
• jan.skoda@biomania.cz - promotion, webmaster

Previous Student Scientific Conferences

• The Biomania Student Scientific Meeting 2017
• The Biomania Student Scientific Meeting 2015
• The Student Scientific Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine 2013
• The Student Scientific Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine 2012
• The Student Scientific Conference on Cancer Research
• Studentská vědecká konference pro studenty pracující s geneticky modifikovanými organismy (GMO)