Four students from the School of Medicine of the Universidad de Navarra will participate in the V International Symposium of Genetics to be held in August 2018 in the town of Chiclayo, Perú. The students, Andrés Calva, Luis Blanco, Carmen Hernández and Rocío Iraburu, will jointly present various research projects together with other students from Los Angeles and Perú.

"It was Dr. Carlos A. Tirado, an expert in cytogenetics, who first proposed that I participate in the project, and invite other colleagues", says Carmen. The International Circle of Genetic Studies project, which is the driving force behind the symposium, started in January 29th, 2011, "and our purpose is the comprehensive training of new leaders in genetics," says Dr. Tirado. "We started in Pamplona in 2015, and our coordinator was a student at the Universidad de Navarra, Tomás Lahoz, as well as two biochemistry students:  José María García Pumarino and Ana Domínguez. All of them helped organize the IV Genetics Day in 2016 and presented research papers there. Tomás Lahoz also did an internship, last June, in oncology at the University of California."

In 2018, the students will present the following papers: "MicroRNAs in Cancer and their Role in Cytogenomics" (Andrés Calva), "Testicular germ cell tumors: A cytogenetic update" (Luís Blanco), "Cytogenetic abnormalities in double minutes (Carmen Hernández) and Epigenetics of B-ALL (B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia) (Rocío Iraburu).

Delegates for Medicine

The four future doctors from the Medical School will be the only ones at the V International Symposium of Genetics who will speak in the area of ​​medicine since the rest of the participants come from other areas of science. "It is certainly a great opportunity to interact with other international students, as well as to meet people and be able to improve our curriculum during our years at the Faculty," concludes Andrés.