Hii everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

For this week’s post, I have decided to write about NeuRi – Student Congress of Neuroscience. I write about this particular meeting because I have been part of it since 2015. However, I believe any kind of involvement with this kind of events is extremely important to students, and I would like to encourage all my friends and colleagues who might read this piece to get involved!

NeuRi is a congress aimed at students who have interest in neuroscience; neurobiology, neuropharmacology, molecular neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery, neuroinformatics, psychiatry, neurolinguistics… For nine years, it has been held in Rijeka, a city in the middle of Kvarner. It also includes an excursion to island Rab and visit to Psychiatric Hospital Rab. At NeuRi, students have an opportunity to present their work, form new friendships, and participate in the biggest gathering of young neuroscientists in the region. The congress lasts for three days; it consists of plenary lectures and workshops held by professors in their respective fields (from neurology to psychiatry and neurobiology), and oral and poster presentations by students. Student presentations include scientific investigations, case reports, and reviews. And there is a lot of free food 😊
Organisation of such event starts one year before, with writing projects for grants, brainstorming, inviting plenary lecturers, and of course, registration for passive and active participation, which is my job. I personally process and answer to all registrations and organize them in special tables, which are later used for logistics and accreditations. This might not seem like a demanding work, but at times, there are more than 80 registered participants in one day, and I have to process all of them. Which, again, might not be so demanding, if people could remember to input their contact details correctly 😉

Apart from being part of Organising Committee, I was also an active presenter for the last four years, because I believe this is a unique opportunity to practice my presenting and gain input from my peers. First year, I submitted a review about different mechanisms of neurotoxins; in 2017, together with my colleague from Zagreb School of Medicine, we talked about levels of N-cadherin expression in human meningioma; last year I had a review presentation about possible role beta-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) plays in neurodegenerative diseases, and this year, I, together with my lab partner from Department of Biology, presented about various bioinformatics tools used to manipulate proteins in silico. As an example, we investigated tau, showed how to find the gene in NCBI database, how to choose the right protein file from Protein Data Base, and how to run that same file through multiple simulations. In the end we compared healthy tau protein with mutated version and also got the audience award for the best presentation!

I’m interested about your experiences with student science manifestations? Do you like to go to a congress or a symposium? How did you prepare for your first active presentation? 😊 Let me know in the comments!

For more details, visit NeuRi official web-site

All photos by Helena Balaž