ESCBC 2024 Workshops
Experimental Design
Nuno Franco
Nuno Henrique Franco has degrees in both Animal Biology and Science Education, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. He is a researcher at the i3S (University of Porto) on the topics of laboratory animal welfare, animal ethics and the 3Rs, thermoregulation in rodents, and scientific quality and reproducibility.
He is vice-president of the Portuguese Society for Laboratory Animal Science (SPCAL) and Past-President of the EU Education & Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS). He sits on the i3S Animal Welfare Body and coordinates the Portuguese Network of Animal Welfare Bodies – RedeORBEA.
Round Table: Career outside academia
Cristina Lemos, Maura Samarani & Sara Romanzi
Cristina Lemos
Cristina is the Program Manager of the Institut Curie’s international PhD program, overseeing approximately 300 PhD students. She began her career in microbiology for biotechnology, completing her MSc at Cranfield University (UK), where she focused on the development of sludge bioremediation processes for Yorkshire Water. While working at the Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial on a clinical study related to Parkinson’s disease, Cristina’s interests shifted, leading her to pursue a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Cristina spent the final year of her PhD in Florianopolis (Brazil), followed by postdoctoral research at the Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria), where she led a project on stress and social interaction. At the Paris Brain Institute, as part of the scientific affairs team, she played a key role in the operational management of the institute’s global international strategy. Cristina’s career has given her a unique cross-cultural perspective and seeing science as a community, she works toward fostering a culture of care, trust, inclusion, and well-being to enhance a better research experience.
Maura Samarani
After obtaining her PhD in Biochemical Sciences in Milan, Italy, Maura moved to Paris 6 years ago to pursue her postdoc at Institut Pasteur, where she was awarded with a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship in 2020. At the end of her postdoc, she decided to change her career path, and she joined the Institut Imagine as Coordinator of the Education and Society programs. From December 2022, she is then in charge of coordinating and managing the institute’s training programs for young researchers, as well as the human and social sciences programs aimed at improving the lives of rare genetic disease patients and their families and the societal programs to bridge the gap between scientists and society. As a PhD student in Milan, from 2014 to 2018, she organized and participated in 5 European Researchers’ Night and in more than 20 workshops in primary schools to disseminate science to adults and children. From 2021, she is the Italian coordinator of Native scientists association in Paris, whose mission is to connect children and scientists of the same migrant community by organizing science workshops in a shared heritage language.
Sara Romanzi
Sara carried out her Ph.D. studies in circuit neuroscience in Italy, during which she focused on astrocytes, neural activity in the hippocampus, and approaches to optical imaging. In 2023, wanting to try out some different imaging modalities, she joined Iconeus, where her role is now to convince other scientists to try fUS for a different perspective on brain imaging! Outside work, she challenges what she claims is her natural clumsiness by hiking, climbing, and running. She is also a hungry reader and passionate about anime and manga
Science Communication
Renaud Pourpre
Passionate about science and its impacts, Renaud joined the European Magisterium of Genetics and obtained a Bachelor’s degree, then a Master’s degree in Science-Technology-
Health and Genetics, coupled with a European inter-university diploma. He multiplies long term research experiences abroad (Germany, Italy, Texas) and is nourished by the cultural
experiences of these trips. In 2019, he obtained a PhD in Microbiology and Epigenetics from the University of Paris-Saclay.
In parallel to his studies, he explores the popularization of science and innovation for the benefit of citizens. He co-founded and organized Lowpital for 2 years, an innovation creathon to improve the patient experience. He got involved in demystifying science on
various platforms (podcast, video, festivals, etc.) and won several awards (student video award from the Île-de-France region; Live-Reporter commitment award for the Fête de la science) until he made it his business in 2020.
Mental Health
Jelena Brasanac
Jelena Brasanac is a postdoctoral researcher at the Klinik für Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
She is interested in investigating the interaction between psychiatric symptoms and the immune system, setting up novel models of clinical trials as well as harnessing the potential of altered states of consciousness in the treatment of mental health disorders.
Jelena did her PhD in the Medical Neurosciences graduate program at the Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany.
She finished her bachelor’s and master’s studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Belgrade, Serbia before receiving the NeuroCure PhD fellowship and moving to Berlin. She is an inaugural member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) Early Career Academy and a member of the Scientific Program Committee for the 38th ECNP Congress in Amsterdam.
Besides research, she is passionate about the mental health of scientists, so she co-founded Dragonfly Mental Health, a non-profit on a quest to cultivate excellent mental health in academics worldwide.
Grant Writing
Eugénia Shadlova
Eugenia Shadlova is the French National Contact Point for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions.
Following ten years as European Affairs officer in French universities, she joined in 2021 the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation as MSCA NCP coordinator and French
Delegate to the Programme Committee for the MSCA configurations.
Her team, composed of four NCPs, provides information, training, tools and advice to research grant applicants. It supports proposal preparation as well as project implementation. The services are tailored to communities’ needs, with the objective to stimulate applications in different sectors, offer advanced training and increase the quality of the proposals.
PhD Tools
Rony Abecidan
Rony Abecidan is a PhD student in AI and Cybersecurity at Centrale Lille Institute since 2021. His research focuses on “Developing robust strategies for detecting image manipulation”, a crucial challenge in information security. In addition to his academic work, he hosts the podcast “Thesis? Antithesis? Synthesis!” which aims to make the PhD journey in France more accessible to the public.