Professor Alireza Fazeli
President
Alireza is leading lab groups at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the University of Tartu, and the University of Sheffield. Fazeli lab is focused on human, animal, and plant extracellular vesicles research. Alireza hopes that his research makes a difference in day to day lives of ordinary people.
Professor Augustas Pivoriūnas
Treasurer
Augustas Pivoriūnas leads an active group of scientists and PhD students in the State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicine, Lithuania. His research interests focus primarily on extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from different types of adult stem cells and their applications in basic research and cell-based therapies.
Professor Reet Kurg
Board member
Reet Kurg is a Professor of Molecular Biomedicine and Director of the Institute of Technology at the University of Tartu. Her current research is dedicated to understanding of the biological functions and underlying regulatory mechanism of cancer testis antigens MAGEA proteins expression in cancer cells. She is active in the field of extracellular vesicles (EVs) with the aim of finding biomarkers for melanoma diagnostics and generating EVs with desired properties. More: https://kurglab.ee/
Professor Aija Linē
Board member
Aija Linē is the head of the Cancer Biomarker group and the scientific director of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre and a professor of molecular genetics and immunology at the University of Latvia. Her group is studying various aspects of EVs involvement in cancer, such as, what messages cancer cells are sending to each other and to normal cells, and what can we learn about cancer if we manage to hijack these messages? More recently, the group started to explore the molecular cargo and functional effects of exercise-induced EVs in cancer.
Barbora Lekešytė
Secretary
Barbora is a doctoral candidate in the Stem Cell biology field at the State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania. Her work is dedicated to neuroscience with main focus on neurodegenerative diseases. She aims to figure out the better understanding of the disease’s cause and apply stem cell – derived extracellular vesicles as a potential treatment (and make it available for people in need). She is also an active community person. Barbora is an active member of Lithuanian Young Researchers Society (LYRS) and European council for doctoral candidates and junior researchers (EURODOC) where this year she was elected to a WG of Research and Society. Her wish to all is to have courage and endless curiosity while reaching your goals!
Signe Parts
Board member
In September 2022, Signe started her PhD studies as a junior researcher at the University of Tartu under the supervision of Prof. Vallo Volke and Prof. Alireza Fazeli. During her PhD studies, Signe will continue her work with diabetic patients and extracellular vesicles. In addition to her research, she enjoys popularizing science. She is working as a lecturer at the University of Tartu Youth Academy where she is teaching biology workshops. She hopes to inspire people to be hopeless dreamers and to show that hard work will pay off.
Vladimirs Pilipenko
Board member
Vladimirs is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of Neuropharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Latvia. He is investigating the repurposement of antidiabetic drug metformin to treat Alzheimer’s disease-type changes in the rat brain. Vladimirs has also worked in collaboration with Professor Augustas Pivoriūnas to decipher the neuroprotective effects of extracellular vesicles in rats with experimental Parkinson’s disease. Vladimirs is the Vice-President of the Latvian Society of Pharmacology, and is a member of Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP).