The latest subject rankings of the country’s educational institutions were published today. Vilnius University (VU) was the best performer in the ranking, as it is every year – the University was declared the leader in more than one-third of the evaluated bachelor’s degree programmes and almost half of the master’s degree programmes. In terms of the total sum of all indicators, the best-ranked bachelor’s degree programmes at Vilnius University are Computer Science (93.7), Genetics (89.8), and Journalism (89.6). In the category of master’s studies, VU’s highest-ranked master’s programmes are Physics (93.1), Chemistry (92.6), Biochemistry (91.6), and Education (89.2).

Dr Rokas Grigaitis is one of the two young scientists from the VU LSC who have received the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) scholarship.

Vilnius University (VU) Life Sciences Center (LSC) biochemist Dr Stephen Knox Jones Jr. and the team he leads have been awarded a prestigious 1.2 million Euro grant. The European Research Council Starting Grant established by the European Research Council (ERC) is the first of its kind in Lithuania. It has been awarded to the scientist for the next five years to carry out the project “Nuclease profiling and off-target rearrangement to expand gene editing”, which aims to improve gene editing methods.

The Lithuanian Union of Young Scientists has announced and the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda has awarded the winners of the Best Dissertations 2021 competition. The dissertations of Milda Mickutė and Žana Kapustina (2 of the 10 best dissertations) were written and defended at the Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre.

Two scientists have already been awarded a European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) fellowship at the VU Life Sciences Centre. One of them is Dr Jorūnė Sakalauskaitė, who will be giving a seminar entitled ‘Search for ancient proteins: the present & the future of palaeoproteomics‘ this Friday at the VU LSC.

The article entitled ‘Selective chemical tracking of Dnmt1 catalytic activity in live cells’ by researchers of Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre (VU LSC) Institute of Biotechnology Vaidotas Stankevičius, Povilas Gibas, Bernadeta Masiulionytė, Liepa Gasiulė, Viktoras Masevičius, Saulius Klimašauskas and Giedrius Vilkaitis has been published in Molecular Cell,  a prestigious and highly cited journal. In the same issue of the journal, Prof. Saulius Klimašauskas, Prof. Giedrius Vilkaitis and Dr. Vaidotas Stankevičius feature ‘Meet the Authors’ series about the published work and stories behind it.

A project at the Institute of Biotechnology of the VU Life Sciences Centre for the treatment of various human genetic diseases using gene therapy has won the ‚Europos burės 2022‘ (European Sails 2022) award. It was recognised as the best in the category ‚Efficiency in Medicine‘.

Their Royal Highnesses King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium visited the VU Life Sciences Centre, where Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys presented gene editing technology. 

2 articles were published in the journal Nature Microbiology (IF 30.964) are dedicated to functional and mechanism studies of short prokaryotic Argonaute proteins. They crowned the productive collaboration of the Department of Protein-Nucleic acids interactions group, Institute of Biotechnology (BTI), Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre (VU GMC), led by dr. Mindaugas Zaremba and prof. Virginijus Šikšnys, and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) Department of Molecular Genetics, headed by prof. Rotem Sorek.  

28 best students of the country have been awarded the Presidential Scholarships for the academic year 2022-2023 for their outstanding academic achievements in various fields of study. This year, the largest number of scholarships - thirteen - will be awarded to students from Vilnius University (VU). And two of them are from the VU Life Sciences Centre (VU GMC).

The Jonas Žemaitis scholarships (Engineering Sciences and Technology Sciences) will be awarded to Lukas Krasauskas, a first year student of the Master's degree programme in Molecular Biotechnology at the VU Life Sciences Centre, and Mohammad Nour Alsamsam, a first year student of the Master's degree programme in Photonics and Nanotechnology at the VU Physics Faculty.

The Kazis Grinius scholarships (life sciences, health sciences, veterinary sciences, agriculture, sports) will be awarded to Giedrė Žulpaitė, 5th year student of the VU Faculty of Medicine's Integrated Medical Studies programme, and Justina Gineitytė, 5th year student of the VU Life Sciences Centre's Biophysics Master's programme.

Gabrielė Aputytė, a fourth-year student of the Bachelor's degree programme in Lithuanian Philology and Latvian Language at the VU Faculty of Philology, Mikas Danilevičius, a third-year student of the Bachelor's degree programme in Classical (Latin and Ancient Greek) Philology at the VU Faculty of Philology, and Pranciškus Gricius, a first-year student of the Master's degree programme in Philosophy at the VU Faculty of Philology.

The Aleksandras Stulginskis (Mathematical Sciences, Computer Science, Physical Sciences) scholarships are awarded to Ieva Pudžiuvelyte, a third-year student of the Bachelor's degree programme in Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Vilnius University, Diana Griesiūte, 1st year student of the Master's degree programme in Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, VU, Vilius Bagdonas, 1st year student of the Master's degree programme in Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics at the Faculty of Physics, VU.

Algirdas Brazauskas Scholarships (social sciences and educational sciences, law, business and public management) will be awarded to Dominykas Ragelis, a third year student of the Bachelor's degree programme in Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy of Vilnius University, Danielis Jurčiukonis, 1st year student of the Master's Degree Programme in Geography and Territorial Planning at the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, VU, Vilias Lapis, 1st year student of the Master's Degree Programme in Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law, VU.

Evaluates performance and activity

Scholarships in honour of the Presidents of the Republic of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, Aleksandras Stulginskis, Kazis Grinius, Jonas Žemaitis and Algirdas Brazauskas, are awarded annually to the best-performing students in the country.

Candidates for the scholarships are selected on the basis of their achievements in studies, scientific, social and artistic activities. Students are awarded for their outstanding academic performance, participation in competitions, expeditions and student research projects, published research papers, etc.

The scholarship recipients study in bachelor's, master's and full-time study programmes at eleven higher education institutions in the country - eight universities and three colleges.

Three scholarships will go to students of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, two each to Kaunas University of Technology and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, and one each to Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Klaipėda University, and Vilnius Academy of Arts. Two students from Kaunas College will also be awarded Presidential nominal scholarships, and one each from Vilnius and Šiauliai State Colleges.

Nine students will be awarded Presidential Nominal Scholarships for their achievements in humanities and arts studies. The five best students were selected from the Life, Health, Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences and Sport study groups. Five more were selected from the Engineering and Technological Science study group, and five from the Social and Educational Sciences, Law, Business and Public Management study group. Four students were recognised for outstanding results in mathematics, computer science and physical sciences.

Up to 30 Presidential Nominal Scholarships are available each year for the best students. They are open to students from all higher education institutions, both state-funded and non-state-funded. Applications for the scholarships are submitted by higher education institutions and assessed by experts from the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

The Presidential Nominal Scholarships were established in 1995 to honour the Presidents of the Republic of Lithuania and to encourage the country's best students.

Staff and PhD students from the Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics of the VU Life Sciences Centre, as well as neuroscientists from other departments of the VU LSC, actively participated in the international conference FENS (Federation of European Neurosciences Associations) Forum 2022. This conference took place in Paris (France), 9-14 July. 

In total, over 7800 participants took part in the conference, 17 from Lithuania (15 out of them were from VU LSC), and over 4000 poster presentations were presented at this conference. VU LSC scientists also presented their posters.

One-time prof. Karolis Jankevičius Scholarship were awarded to UGNĖ RICKEVIČIŪTĖ, a third year student of the Bachelor's study programme in Microbiology, and DOMAS MAŠONIS, a first year student of the Master's study programme in Microbiology.

Vilnius University will organize Arqus Research Focus Forum on the topic 'Healthy aging from a multidisciplinary perspective'.