On 24–25 May 2023, the VU Life Sciences Center hosted an international scientific conference 'Frontiers in Molecular Life Sciences' in memory of Prof. Jędrzej Śniadecki. The organisers of the conference were VU Life Sciences Center, the Lithuanian and Polish Biochemical Societies.
Prof. Aurelija Žvirblienė, a member of the Conference Organising Committee, was pleased that a large number of Polish scientists attended the Conference, whose scientific presentations enriched the Conference programme. A total of 20 oral and 50 poster presentations were presented at the conference, covering a wide range of life sciences.
Oral presentations were given by Prof. Saulius Klimašauskas, Prof. Česlovas Venclovas, Dr Urtė Neniškytė, Prof. Linas Mažutis and other recognized scientists. In the poster session, the best poster presentations were elected, where the participants of the conference voted for their favourite presentations. The evaluations were also made by an authoritative scientific jury of Dr Saulius Gražulis, Dr Milda Plečkaitytė, Prof. Vida Mildažienė and Prof. Gervydas Dienys. The results of the voting and the opinion of the jury were summarised and the poster presentations by Laurita Klimkaitė, Agnieszka Rębacz, Bernadeta Kaminskaitė and Kristijonas Veličkevičius were recognised as the best. These young scientists were awarded prizes by the conference sponsors UAB Nova, UAB Biotecha and UAB Grida.
At the end of the conference, the guests visited the VU Museum of Zoology and the LSC scientific laboratories. The head of the Polish delegation, Prof. Adam Szewczyk, President of the the Polish Biochemical Society, pointed out the high level of scientific research in Lithuania and made suggestions on how to strengthen cooperation between Lithuanian and Polish scientists.
This is the second scientific conference dedicated to the memory of Jędrzej Śniadecki. The first one took place in Grodno (Belarus) in 2018 and was attended by Belarusian, Lithuanian and Polish scientists. Following the change in the political situation and the end of cooperation with Belarusian scientists, the conference became a bilateral event. The third conference will be organised in Poland in 2025.