On Thursday, April 20, at 2:30-3:45 p.m., the first food council for Campus Medicinareberget will be held at restaurant Salt&Syra. Our new restaurateur Nordrest will introduce themselves and we will have an opportunity to provide feedback and requests, ask questions and exchange information. The Food Council is for anyone who wants to participate. The food council is planned to be held in Swedish, but could be held in English if requested. No pre-registration is required.

When the latest subject rankings from QS recently were presented, University of Gothenburg’s position within Sahlgrenska Academy’s various subject areas both improved and deteriorated. GU climbs a few places in the subject Medicine, and is now in place 93. In Biological Sciences, too, the placement improves from place 151-200 last year, to place 144 this year. Within Anatomy & Physiology, we remain unchanged in place 51-100. The university is still strong in Dentistry, but slips down a few places to 10th place in the world. Nursing also loses some positions this year, and is now in place 101-150.

Results from different rankings can have great significance, above all for which universities international students, doctoral students and researchers choose. However, the methods of the subject rankings have major quality problems. New placements on the lists are often a consequence of minor changes in factors relevant to the measurement methods, rather than changes in the actual quality of the higher education institutions.

Congratulations to Peter Andiné, who is now a professor of forensic psychiatry, combined with a position as chief physician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Peter Andiné works at the Center for Ethics, Law and Mental Health (CELAM) and leads the research group Forensic Psychiatry Gothenburg. He works with evidence-based forensic psychiatric methods with a focus on brain health, cognitive functions and metabolic syndrome. Forensic psychiatry as a subject is in great need of evidence from randomized and controlled treatment studies, something that is difficult to implement in healthcare units for compulsory care. Peter Andiné is vice-chairman of the teacher proposal committee, scientific council at the National Board of Health and Welfare, chairman of the Swedish Forensic Psychiatry Association and leads the work of organizing the first national forensic psychiatry conference in Gothenburg in August 2023.

Göteborgs-Posten has had the AI tool Chat GPT conduct exams in law, biotechnology, history, business economics and microbiology, and had teachers at Chalmers University and University of Gothenburg assess how well the tool did. To a large extent, the tool impresses the teachers, but it does not yet seem to be good enough to pass university exams, notes the newspaper’s reporter. Chat GPT was tested, among other things, on a homework assignment in microbiology on the medical program, where it had to write a popular science summary of a scientific text. The result contains some repetitions, and lack of the assessment that was included in the task. Read the article in GP (in Swedish).

It is now decided that Gustav Smith, professor of cardiology at the Institute of Medicine, will be the new director of the Wallenberg Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine (WCMTM), as of April 1. The scope of the assignment is 50 percent of full-time employment. Gustav Smith has experience of participating in the corresponding center at Lund University. He takes over after current acting director Staffan Edén. The research center WCMTM was initiated in 2015 and involves around 26 research groups at Sahlgrenska Academy and the Faculty of Science.
Akademiliv hopes to get back with a longer interview with Gustav Smith.

On April 20 Fortes arranges a dialogue meeting to begin an inventory of knowledge gaps in the area of womens health and disease. The work will also result in a proposal for a funding program within the research area. The inventory and proposal are included in a government assignment to Forte and the Swedish Research Council. The results will be presented to the Ministry of Social Affairs in November 2023. More information and registration is found at Fortes webpages.

Medical student Nicole Kerekes is one of the final candidates to win the King’s Foundation Young Leadership scholarship Kompassrosen (‘Compass Rose’). Up to half of the ten finalists will be selected for the prize of SEK 50,000. The scholarships are awarded by King Carl XVI Gustaf on May 15 during a ceremony at the Royal Palace. Nicole Kerekes (24 years old) is president of the student organization Students in Research (SiF) at Sahlgrenska Academy. SiF works to ensure that more students with different backgrounds have better access to research opportunities. Nicole is also a research and anatomy assistant, and works with the Soapbox Science event, where female and non-binary scientists present research to the public.

In order for the Swedish Ethical Review Authority to be able to carry out ethical reviews, members with scientific competence are needed. These members must be nominated and it is the Vice-Chancellor who sends in nominees from the University of Gothenburg. The proposals apply to both assignments as members and substitutes to the Swedish Ethical Review Authority, operating region Gothenburg. The assignments apply to the mandate period 2024-2027. If the assignments are not staffed, the processing times in Gothenburg for the Ethics Review Authority risk becoming extended. As a member, you will become well acquainted with the ethics review process, and will be able to take part in new and upcoming research. Interested? Contact Moa Ekbom, moa.ekbom@gu.se.

• On March 21, 12:00-13:15, a digital seminar will be given in Swedish about what it is like to be an EPM member. Sign up here.

Congratulations to Karin Welén, University of Gothenburg, and Andreas Josefsson, Universities of both Gothenburg and Umeå, recipients of the Best Scientific Paper on Fundamental Research in the journal European Urology for 2022. Their prized study shows that a drug that blocks testosterone and is used in prostate cancer does not help in covid -19, findings that received a lot of attention. Photo from the award ceremony in Milan this weekend with editor-in-chief James Catto and Karin Welén and Andreas Josefsson, both Associate Professors. Photo: Johan Stranne.