On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) Medical Education Technology Centre (METC) on 7 December, RSU signed a memorandum of collaboration with seven healthcare, education, and government institutions.

Facial clefts are a congenital development defect caused by the defective fusion of facial folds before birth. Clefts can be unilateral or bilateral and can affect the oral mucosal tissues, forming clefts of the lip and palate.

The formation of facial clefts has been linked to cleft genes, whose proteins regulate the growth and formation of tissues in the facial region, but the involvement of these genes in the formation of facial clefts is relatively unclear and has not been particularly studied in human tissues.

We welcome all interested parties to a workshop on human papiloma viruses (HPV) and associated neoplastic diseases and cancer.

Participation

All Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) researchers who are working on HPV infection and associated cancers are invited to submit presentations - we have slots in the research program and especially welcome early-career researchers.

Olga Valciņa will defend her doctoral dissertation on 28 December at 15:00 in an open meeting of the RSU degree committee of Basic Sciences of Medicine, including Pharmacy. Her dissertation is titled 'Prevalence, Genetic Diversity, and Virulence Potential of Legionella spp.'

Official reviewers

• Prof. (Dr. med.) Juta Kroiča, Rīga Stradiņš University
• Prof. (Dr. med. vet.) Anda Valdovska, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies
• Assoc. Prof. (PhD) Tarja Pitkänen, University of Helsinki (Finland)

When a patient suffers from a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, their brain and nerve cells gradually deteriorate leading to impaired memory, cognitive function, and range of movement. The timely diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases is a major challenge of the 21st century in Europe and worldwide.