Hiánypótló egyetemi tananyag fejlesztés valósult meg a Pécsi Tudományegyetem vezetésével az „Educating Experts of the Future: Developing Bioinformatics and Biostatistics competencies of European Biomedical Students” elnevezésű Erasmus+ projekt keretein belül, 259 150 EUR keretösszegből.
The new wing of the Medical School of the University of Pécs, for which the Modern Cities Programme provided 14 billion HUF resources, was officially handed over. The ceremony took place on 5 September.
The main building of the prestigious Medical School of Pécs has been expanded with a new 12,000 m2 wing, which includes the latest technological innovations, thus providing students and educators and researchers with an even higher level of theoretical and clinical education environment than before.
As part of the Modern Cities Programme, the Government of Hungary supported the University of Pécs with more than 30 billion HUF, the declared aim of which was to strengthen the competitiveness of the institution, to develop the education and services portfolio, to increase the number of international students and to provide the necessary infrastructure conditions. The Medical School of the university played a significant role in the achievement of the goals, since nearly every other student of the university's slightly more than 5,000 international students are studying at this faculty.
We made sure that the nearly 30 billion HUF, that we received through the Modern Cities Programme, was used wisely, but it was not easy.
– said Attila Miseta, rector of the University of Pécs, thanking everyone involved in the process.
"During the tour you will see this beautiful campus, which fits every requirement of the 21st century. I am very proud, but we still have a lot of work to do, new projects, for some of which the funding has already been allocated to the university." He also mentioned the university recently introduced new operating model, in which he considers using the opportunities to be the most important.
The upcoming centenary celebration of UP was highlighted by Gergely Gulyás, Minister heading the Prime Minister's Office, who compared the development of Pécs through the Modern Cities Programme to the rebuilding of the country in the 1920s. With the university moving from Bratislava to Pécs, the re-establishment was successful.
Gergely Gulyás, on behalf of the Government of Hungary, thanked the University of Pécs for its work concerning the coronavirus epidemic and specifically highlighted the role of more than 2,000 students of UP, who fought the epidemic while at the same time continuing their studies. Archimedes thought that a fixed point and a long enough lever are enough to move the world. The University of Pécs is the South Transdanubian centre of science and innovation. According to Gergely Gulyás:
The University of Pécs is one of the fixed points that can help the region move forward.
He also stated that today is not the end of the process, but the beginning, which will contribute to the success of Pécs and the region.
“Thanks to the economic recovery that has taken place over the last six years, huge strides have been made, and today is a milestone, but it is also the first step on a new path” – said Péter Hoppál, Member of Parliament, referring to the fact that the dental block is already being built next door to the new block. "On this program, the whole region will win." - emphasized the representative.
István Decsi, Chancellor of UP and member of the Board of Trustees of the Universitas Quinqueecclesiensis Foundation, stated that the motto of the Modern Cities Programme, which was launched in 2015, has been implemented:
UP has truly become the gateway to the future.
In his speech, he also discussed the possibility of a new form of operation, since the change of model will also contribute to the beginning of a new chapter in the life of the university.
After the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon, Professor Miklós Nyitrai, dean of the Medical School, gave a speech. "I might be accused of being partial, however,
I am convinced that we are on Hungary’s most beautiful campus.
He thanked everyone for their help and emphasized: "Our goal is to further develop this community."
Imre Sillye, chief engineer, led the tour of the new building, which is divided into three main sections in
red-white-green - the colours of the Hungarian flag.
Modern, hybrid education-friendly lecture halls and well-equipped labs await medical students in the buildings. Thanks to the development, the faculty's spaces for education and research have been expanded by 40%. In the new wing, 4 lecture halls and 34 seminar rooms serve the educational and learning conditions, and the state-of-the-art medical technology provides the background for the training.
Four institutes are moving from the old theoretical block to the new wing. Globally, the concept is not new, yet the so-called "open lab" architecture on every level is considered a novelty in terms of the function of building design. In addition, the 10,000 m2 park has been renewed around the wing, which, with its plants, state-of-the-art pavement system and public furniture and artificial lake, provides a wonderful community space for students. The good news for educators and researchers in particular is that 254 new parking spaces have been created to alleviate parking difficulties. Many of the students ride bicycles in the city, it is no coincidence that 160 new bicycle storage places have also been created.
The history of the medical campus in Pécs began in the 1950s, when education began at the former Military School. In the 1980s, the English language medical training was launched, in 2004, the German-language dentistry, in 2006, the English-language dentistry, and in 2009, the English-language pharmacy training appeared in the university's portfolio. It is a fact that the number of international students has increased significantly in the last decade, and the international trend shows that
the need for Hungarian medical training may continue to grow in the coming years.
by: international.pte.hu
The almost 800 million HUF tender titled “Increasing the capacity of the University of Pécs Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility” included the purchase and operation of a high-performance sequencing system and the connected bioinformatics equipment that was not available in the country before.
In the past few years, the University of Pécs Szentágothai Research Centre launched the creation of a genomics and bioinformatics centre and research infrastructure that provides most useful services and products for healthcare, agriculture, university education, research and industrial developments at maximum cost effectiveness.
One of the central elements of this project is establishing the necessary sequencing infrastructure.
Thanks to the funding the project received, they were able to purchase the Illumina NovaSeq sequencing equipment, using it to establish a complex system that was only available in Vienna and Prague in Central Europe so far. Due to the developments of molecular biology and informatics in the past few years, national and international medical biology research has reached significant achievements, leading to the transformation of practical medicine. Research, diagnostics and targeted therapy treatments were based on genome foundations, mainly using new generation sequencing technologies. These genomics studies are connected to serious infrastructure, intellectual and economic conditions; therefore, they are only available in countries that have the necessary funds and are able to coordinate them properly.
The Szentágothai Research Centre has initiated the launch of the all-encompassing, synchronised and multidisciplinary Hungarian National Genome Programme
that would also serve national economic purposes. This programme is unique not only in Hungary, but also in the Eastern-Central European region as well, and has various advantages: both for the health of society, and for scientific development and economic stability. The goal is to determine the genetic characteristics of the Hungarian population, development of disease-specific genetic panels and promoting the identification of new pharmaceutical targets.
by: international.pte.hu
The MediSkillsLab Medical Simulation Education Centre of the Medical School of the University of Pécs has been operating on the fourth floor of the old main building on 280 square metres since 2015. As a result of the development that has just started, the usable surface area of the centre will be increased sixfold to 1,700 square metres. The total gross value of the investment exceeds HUF 1 billion, and the project is being implemented within the framework of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme "Infrastructural Development of the University of Pécs".
"Very important investments have been made. Thanks to this support, the University has been given a development opportunity to renew itself and to continue its scientific, teaching and research work in an even more modern environment", emphasised dr. Attila Felinger, vice rector for science and innovation, at the press conference on 10 November, which included the presentation of the new Simulation Education Centre construction site of the Medical School.
"The year 2021 was about change and development.
In addition to ongoing investments, we have also had the opportunity to generate new ones, laying the foundations for our future competitiveness. We have made significant progress in the development of education: the institute, currently operating on almost 300 square metres, will be expanded to 1,700 square metres," concluded chancellor István Decsi. As a result of the project development, the interdisciplinary MediSkillsLab Medical Simulation Education Centre of the Medical School of UP will not only be a unique institution in the region, but will also be able to provide European and world-class education in modern medical technology.
The primary task of the Simulation Centre is to develop the manual and communication skills of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, doctors and health science trainees, thus providing full support to clinical education programmes.
The demand for the activities of the MediSkillsLab is increasing year by year, with currently nearly 1,500 contact hours per semester.
This is why it has become necessary to increase the space and modernise and renew the equipment park. The investment will significantly increase the number of classrooms and will involve a complete renovation of the relevant parts of the building.
The centre will include a teaching theatre where surgeries can be performed using real medical equipment for educational or demonstration purposes. The operating theatre will also be able to support a wide range of medical-related research, development and innovation projects. The Simulation Education Centre will also house 25 dental phantom lab workstations to support dentistry training, and a new addition will be a teaching lab incorporating virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies, where the most advanced visualisation tools will be used to deliver health and medical education with the help of the UP 3D Printing and Visualisation Centre. The communication skills classrooms will be set up as a realistic doctor's office and ward, while the operational medicine concept unit will provide high-level training in prehospital care in an operational environment. In addition, the audio-visual system will be updated to support training, which will greatly facilitate not only the recording and playback of educational content, but also the development of digital curriculum from it.
Dr. Miklós Nyitrai, dean of the Medical School, emphasized that practical training is the basis of medical education, which is why this development is extremely important. In addition to increasing capacity through the acquisition of hundreds of new instruments, community spaces will be created to provide opportunities for community building. The works, which started on 4 October on the fourth floor of the main building, built between 1965 and 1970, will include architectural renovation, replacement of the facade windows, structural reinforcements, building services and mechanical installations, installation of air handling units, medical gas networks, fire protection systems, extension and renovation of the freight lift and enhancing accessibility.
"The equipment we use in the centre is truly world class. We are building a new teaching theatre, new matrix and communication classrooms to provide outstanding clinical education,"
said dr. Szilárd Rendeki, head of the Simulation Education Centre, outlining the main elements of the development. We also learned that a total of sixteen rural teaching hospitals and three rural medical universities have recently started to develop their skills laboratories as part of the National Skills Laboratory Network. The University of Pécs has six branch simulation centres in teaching hospitals, with aim to create a professional network.
The total gross value of the investment is HUF 1.128 billion and the construction is being carried out by VivaPalazzo. István Krisztics, the technical manager of the project on behalf of the University of Pécs, said that the simulation centre is being developed within the framework of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme -4.2.1-16-2017-00008 "Infrastructural Development of the University of Pécs". The development is expected to be ready for handover in July 2022. During the site visit after the press conference, participants were also able to see the construction site and learn about the efforts to minimise dust and noise pollution during the construction.
Written by: Gergely Kottász, Mariann Tóth
Researchers of the Virology National Laboratory at the Szentágothai János Research Centre, University of Pécs and RoLink Biotechnology Ltd. have inactivated the coronavirus in a UV chamber developed in-house, using UV-C light, thus making the COVID-19 pathogen more widely accessible for research.
At the Virology National Laboratory of the Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, UV-C light was used to successfully inactivate the Wuhan and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic. In a collaboration between the company and the university, the UV-C inactivation experiments allowed the researchers to determine the UV-C irradiation dose that eliminates the infectivity of the virus without damaging its proteins.
This result opens up new possibilities for COVID research by allowing the study of the pathogen using a range of methods that were previously unavailable.
The new type of coronavirus, inactivated by UV-C, will be used in research to detect virus-specific antibody and cellular immune response and to characterise the specific immune profile of SARS-CoV-2, among other things. These results may also provide an excellent basis for clinical diagnostic and vaccine efficacy studies related to COVID-19.
The present research has been made possible by the almost HUF 130 million that RoLink Biotechnology Ltd. has received in the framework of the 2020-2.1.1-ED-2020-00100 project of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology's National Research, Development and Innovation Office, where several research objectives have been identified. The primary objective was to develop and implement the above-mentioned procedure. As a second part of the project, the experts plan to carry out experimental studies to identify the most effective products for the treatment of patients with severe conditions based on the examination of blood plasma of patients with coronavirus infection. Thirdly, the researchers plan to develop a new system for testing coronavirus vaccines, which will allow the effectiveness of the vaccines to be clearly monitored.