Research exchange and networking at KI DS poster event
To strengthen connections between doctoral students and create more opportunities for research exchange, the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital (KI DS), organised a poster session on 8 September. During the day, doctoral students presented their research to one another and took part in a prize draw for three awards worth SEK 20,000 each.
On Tuesday 8 September, doctoral students from across the department gathered for a poster mingle at the Clinicum premises. The programme began at lunchtime with poster presentations, giving the participants the opportunity to showcase their projects and learn about each other’s research. The event continued later in the afternoon with further opportunities for discussion and networking before concluding with the prize draw.
"An important aim of the initiative is to create opportunities for doctoral students from different clinical disciplines to meet and connect," says Johan Engdahl, Director of Doctoral Studies at KI DS
A forum for collaboration across clinical disciplines
Many doctoral students at the department are also practising clinicians, so much of their time is spent on patient care and related professional training. As a result, they have relatively few natural opportunities to meet and exchange ideas across clinical boundaries.
"The poster mingle is an attempt to bring together doctoral students regardless of their clinical affiliation and give them the chance to meet other researchers and fellow doctoral students, which is important for both their education, training and academic development," says Eva Isaksson, PhD and research nurse at KI DS who coordinated and moderated the event.
Three prize-winners
As an additional incentive, three prizes of SEK 20,000 each were raffled off amongst the doctoral students who exhibited their research posters. The prizes were presented by Head of Department Tomas Jernberg. The funding comes from a surplus within KI’s central doctoral education organisation and is intended to support the recipients’ own doctoral training.
We asked the prize winners to tell us what the prize means to them and to summarise, in three words, what their current research is about.
"It is a wonderful recognition of my work to raise awareness of cognitive difficulties and fatigue following COVID-19. The fact that the research is being recognised in this way motivates me to continue contributing knowledge that can lead to better care and support for people living with long COVID," says Sonia Miri Hedberg, CoNFIND Cognition and Fatigue – Marika Möller’s research group, within the research area Rehabilitation Medicine.
"The award also gives me the opportunity to take the research further," she continues.
"If I were to summarise my research in three words, they would be long COVID, cognition and rehabilitation. We are currently studying blood plasma biomarkers in people with long COVID and cognitive difficulties in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the condition," explains Sonia Miri Hedberg.
Title of Sonia’s poster: “Cognitive fatigability and altered cerebral perfusion during sustained attention in post COVID-19 condition – an fMRI-based study”.
"It feels great, and a little extra motivating, to get some attention on the NIMBLE study as it moves into its early testing phase," says Alexandros Zampakas, CEREBRA – Susanne Palmcrantz's research group, within the research area Rehabilitation Medicine.
"If I were to summarise my research in three words, they would be brain stimulation, neurorehabilitation and neuroplasticity. We are currently studying the clinical effect and feasibility of iTBS for motor recovery after chronic stroke, and how the treatment affects the brain's functional and structural networks," says Alexandros Zampakas.
Title of Alexandros’ poster: “The novel use of intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (iTBS) on motor recovery of the upper extremity after stroke – results of a pilot study”.
"The award gives me the opportunity to explore interesting avenues within the project that would otherwise have been difficult to prioritise. Hopefully, the results from these avenues can lead to new, exciting discoveries and take the project forward," says Andreas Hober, Mucosal Immunology lab – Charlotte Thålin’s research group, within the research area Medicine.
"The three words that best summarise my research are antibodies, mucosa and translational. At the moment, I am studying antibodies in the airways and combining both clinical samples and organoids with various multi-omics strategies to better understand protection against respiratory tract infections," says Andreas Hober.
Title of Andreas’ poster: “Life has changed – experiences of living with Post-COVID-19 condition and participating in interprofessional rehabilitation”
Many thanks to everyone who participated, and especially to Malin Wirf, who ran the event smoothly and had arranged both lunch and light refreshments for the participants.
Poster event for doctoral students
This initiative forms part of a wider effort to strengthen links between doctoral students within the department. From this autumn’s one-year follow-up meetings with the Director of Studies, doctoral students will also meet in smaller groups across clinical departments, with the aim of creating more opportunities for the exchange of experiences and collaboration.
Photos from the poster networking event
