Academic Centre
On Tuesday, February 2, we met in the virtual ZOOM environment with the excellence scholarship recipients in bioinformatics to discuss their achievements and future plans in the academic environment. All five scholarship recipients participated in the conversation, as well as four members of the commission - Jānis Kloviņš, Head of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, Nils Rostoks, Associate Professor of the Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology of the University of Latvia (UL), Prof. Guntis Arnicāns, Dean of the Faculty of Computing of the University of Latvia, and Laila Kundziņa, Executive Director of the UL Foundation. Scholarship recipients are supported by the patron of the LU Foundation SIA “Mikrotīkls”.
This time is not easy, but perhaps this is also a great time to start doing something new or long-awaited. Scholarship recipient Valdis Gavars has enriched his competence during this time by reading many scientific articles and studies in the field of bioinformatics - especially about multiple sequence alignment and processing of biological data, thus building an understanding for his master's thesis. In parallel, Valdis also takes courses on the edX platform to supplement his knowledge in the field of biology.
Meanwhile, scholarship recipient Laura Ansone has turned to a new direction since receiving the scholarship - the analysis of metabolomics data, which is related to her master's thesis. In her master's thesis, Laura performed blood transcriptome and metabolism analysis of COVID-19 inpatients.
For Richard Saksis, remote learning has also opened new skills by using the online learning platform "codeacademy", where the scholarship recipient has learned programming languages. Outside of his studies, Rihards also tries to enrich his knowledge of the R environment in order to put work into the research of pituitary adenoma tumours. Also, due to the duties connected with the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study centre, the student has mastered several new analysis methodologies.
During her master's program, the scholarship holder Santa Prikule diligently continues the research of her bachelor's thesis. It is a complementary kinetic model of the metabolism of the dinoflagellate algae Crypthecodinium cohnii, which includes the metabolic pathways of several substrates. The researcher
has obtained from an experimental laboratory cultivation and substrate consumption data that are processed and ready for use in the model.
Future plans are by no means insignificant, as they are set goals of each that can be met. Scholarship recipient Edgars Liepa wants to use bioinformatics in the future to improve services or products outside the academic field. He sees great potential in the use of biotechnology to improve a variety of processes in different sectors. Edgar wants to be the one to deliver these discoveries to the general public.
We wish success and endurance in the academic field to all scholarship recipients!
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About the University of Latvia Foundation
Since 2004, the University of Latvia Foundation has provided an opportunity for patrons and cooperation partners to support both the University of Latvia and other leading Latvian higher education institutions, thereby investing in the future of Latvia. The priorities of the LU Foundation are to support the most outstanding students and researchers, to promote the creation of a modern study environment, as well as the construction and reconstruction of university buildings.
About patron "Mikrotīkls"
The UL Foundation’s platinum patron SIA “Mikrotīkls” is a company that develops MikroTik RouterOS software and manufactures RouterBoard devices with the aim of providing a wide range of users with accessible, powerful and easy-to-use computer network management tools. SIA "Mikrotīkls" has been apatron of the University of Latvia since 2011. The total amount of the donation exceeds 2 million euros.
