A Lithuanian scientist receives L‘Oreal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” program prestigious award
At the ceremony held on the 14th of March 2019 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, selected scientists received L’Oreal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” program prestigious awards. In the category of “International Rising Talents”, among the 14 young scientists across the world was also a Lithuanian neuroscientist Dr Urtė Neniškytė, a researcher at the Life Science Center at the Vilnius University, whose scientific interest and main area of work relates to the interaction of neurons and immune cells in the brain. During the ceremony, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay welcomed the laureates.
Throughout the week, the laureates took part in various UNESCO organized meetings in Paris, participated at a conference on public access to science, and gave interviews to the media. On the 13th of March, the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Lithuania to UNESCO organized a reception in honour of the Lithuanian scientist, during which Dr Urtė Neniškytė told the diplomats and the representatives of the Lithuanian community, among whom there were many students, about her scientific activities. Ambassador Irena Vaišvilaitė welcomed the achievements of the young Lithuanian scientist and pointed out that such awards contribute to raising awareness of science and encouraging girls and women to choose scientific studies.
Dr Urtė Neniškytė graduated from Vilnius University in 2008 and received her bachelor‘s and master‘s degrees in biochemistry. In 2012, she completed her doctoral program in biochemistry at the St John's College of the University of Cambridge (UK). From 2012 to 2013, she was a visiting researcher at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and a research consultant at UAB Expertus Vilnensis. From 2013 to 2016, she was a trainee at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Italy) under the post-doctoral Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme. In 2016, she received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship.
Currently, Urtė Neniškytė is involved in the research of molecular mechanisms of brain network pruning, during which immune brain cells remove unnecessary connections from the developing neuron network, creating the conditions for the formation of a structurally and functionally developed network.
Together with co-authors, she published more than 10 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, gave lectures in international conferences in Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, the Kingdom of Netherlands, France, Germany, the USA and elsewhere.
Since 2006 she is a member of the Lithuanian Biochemical Society and the Lithuanian Neuroscience Association.
