Dear Colleagues,

The journal Diseases is inviting applications for the Diseases 2023 Best PhD Thesis Award. This prize will be awarded to a PhD student or recently qualified PhD who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee led by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Maurizio Battino.

Eligibility and Requirements:
– The candidate must be a PhD student or recently qualified PhD who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with great academic potential;
– The PhD thesis must be their original work;
– The PhD thesis must be defended between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2023.

Required Application Documents:
– An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English of around 3000 words;
– A letter from the PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award;
– The candidate’s CV, including a list of publications connected with the thesis;
– An electronic copy of the PhD thesis;
– A scanned copy of the PhD diploma (or certificate of studying at a school or research institute as a PhD student going on to graduate or participate in graduation thesis defenses).

Selection Criteria:
– Quality of resume and publications;
– Relevance of the candidate and research description;
– Novelty of the candidate’s PhD thesis;
– Strength of the recommendation letter;
– Anticipated academic potential;
– Originality and impact of the research.

Prizes:
– Bonus (CHF 800);
– An electronic certificate;
– Offer to publish one paper free of charge in Diseases after peer review before the end of 2024.

The application deadline is 31 October 2023. The winner will be announced on the Diseases website by the end of January 2024.

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Diseases, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Diseases Travel Awards for 2020.

The awards have been granted to Dr. Márió Gajdács, who is an assistant lecturer at Department of Pharmacodynamics and Biopharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Szeged, Hungary; and Dr. Ajinkya Suresh Sase, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Penn Epigenetics Institute, The University of Pennsylvania, USA.

With so many high quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were challenging. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, I congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Battino
Editor-in-Chief

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of the online journal Diseases, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2017 Diseases Travel Award, is Dr. Caroline E. Nunes-Xavier, a Postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Cancer Research at The Norwegian Radium Hospital, who will be supported with 800 Swiss Francs towards travel expenses to attend the 7th Annual International Society for extracellular Vesicles (ISEV2018) which will be helt 2-6 May 2018 in Barcelona, Spain.

Dr. Nunes-Xavier’s current research addresses the role of B7-H3 in multidrug sensitivity of breast cancer and melanoma cells. B7-H3/CD276 is a glycosylated type 1 transmembrane protein that is overexpressed in various types of cancer, facilitating tumor metastasis formation and resistance to therapy. Dr. Nunes-Xavier is interested in the molecular basis of the B7-H3 biological properties and its relation to tumorigenesis.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Battino
Editor-in-Chief of Diseases