Head of the Doctoral School Márta Széll DSc, habil, professor

Department of Medical Genetics

Address: H-6720, 4 Somogyi Béla street, Hungary

Phone: +36 62 545 134, 54 5898

e-mail: szell.marta@med.u-szeged.hu

 

Deputy head of doctoral school

Ernő Duda habil, PhD, DSc, professor emeritus

Department of Medical Biology

Address: H-6720 Szeged, 4 Somogyi street, Hungary

Phone: +36 62 545 592

e-mail: duda@brc.hu

 

 

Application procedure

• Application requirements: at least intermediate level certified by internationally accredited language examination (TOEFL/IELTS/GRE/Other)
• Application fee: 35 EUR
• Tuition fee: max. 5000 EUR per semester

The School offers a PhD programme to graduate students and focuses its research and training on the role of health threatening microorganisms and dangerous environmental effects. Both epidemiologic and experimental studies are necessary to identify physical and chemical effects that cause health problems. The courses of the Medical Microbiology and Preventive Medicine programs are combined in this Graduate School and offer a wide variety of research. The third subprogram, Medical Genetics and Genomics includes hypothesis-testing in genetics and hypothesis-generating genomics in the field of biomedical research. The genetic investigations aim to identify rare mutations and common polymorphisms; their results contribute to the development of preventive and therapeutic modalities for the affected patients.

 

Educational programmes

 

• 1. Medical Microbiology, Antimicrobial Immunity

 

Head of subprogram

Katalin Burián MD, PhD, habil, associate professor, Head of Department

University of Szeged Faculty of Medicine

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology

Address: H-6720 Szeged, 10 Dóm square, Hungary

Phone: +36 62 545-115

E-mail: burian.katalin@med.u-szeged.hu

 

The projects of the doctoral school at the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunobiology include in vitro and in vivo research related to pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Pathomechanism of the obligate intracellular Chlamydia species is investigated in in vitro models examining the host response to the infection, and replication of chlamydiae in different organ-specific host cell types. Susceptibility of these bacteria to antimicrobial agents is also characterized. Animal models of Chlamydia infection are used for testing the influence of compounds that are incorporated in pharmaceutical products for humans on chlamydial infection. Transport mechanisms providing drug resistance in bacteria and tumour cells and synthetic and bioactive compounds isolated from plants affecting drug resistance are investigated. Bioactive natural plant extracts are tested for antibacterial and antiviral effects.

Cytokines play important roles in the innate and adaptive immune responses during the course of infections. It was revealed that certain cytokines activate phagocytes and thereby facilitate the killing and elimination of pathogens. Our goal is to identify the processes and mechanisms implicated in the intracellular survival of various bacteria and viruses.

 

Research topics

 

Effects of vitamin D in infectious diseases

(Supervisor: Katalin Burián professor associates, head of department)

 

Role of cytokines and chemokines in chlamydia infections

(Supervisor: Katalin Burián professor associate, head of department)

 

Bacterial and viral interactions

(Supervisors: Katalin Burián professor associates, head of department and Gabriella Terhes assistant professor)

 

The role of multidrug efflux pumps in the virulence of bacteria

(Supervisor: Gabriella Spengler assistant professor)

 

Preventions of chlamydia infections

(Supervisor: Valéria Endrész senior research fellow)

 

Therapeutic application of viruses in the treatment of cancer

(Supervisor: Klára Megyeri associate professor)

 

In vitro effect of cytokines on bacterial and viral infections

(Supervisor: Klára Megyeri associate professor)

 

Features, mechanisms and medical importance of cell death subroutines

(Supervisor: Klára Megyeri associate professor)

 

Investigation of the natural immune response in sepsis

(Supervisor: Ferenc Somogyvári associate professor)

 

Genetic background of neurological disorders

(Supervisor: Ferenc Somogyvári associate professor)

 

Investigation of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms of clinically important aerobic and anaerobic human pathogenic bacteria

(Supervisors: Ferenc Somogyvári associate professor and József Sóki associate professor)

 

Identification of antichlamydial substances

(Supervisor: Dezső Virók senior research fellow)

 

Investigating the role of exosomes in tumor formation - central nervous system implications

(Supervisor: Krisztina Buzás research associate)

 

Investigation of epidemiology, pathogenesis and laboratory diagnosis of viral and bacterial infections

(Supervisor: Gabriella Terhes assistant professor)

 

Inhibition of efflux pumps in cancer chemotherapy

(Supervisor: Ákos Csonka assistant professor)

 

Prevention and treatment options of surgical site infection

(Supervisor: Ákos Csonka assistant professor)

 

Biomarkers and cellular activation mechanisms in systemic autoimmune diseases

(Supervisor: Attila Balogh associate professor)

 

Radiogenic heart damage and strategies to its avoidance

(Supervisor: Zsuzsanna Kahán professor)

 

Therapeutic sensitivity of cancers

(Supervisor: Zsuzsanna Kahán professor)

 

Individualized treatment approaches in medical oncological care and radiotherapy

(Supervisor: Zsuzsanna Kahán professor)

 

New radiotherapy procedures for the treatment of cancer patients

(Supervisor: Zoltán Varga research fellow)

 

3D printing for radiotherapy

(Supervisor: Zoltán Varga research fellow)

 

Training plan - Medical Microbiology, Antimicrobial Immunity

 

Compulsory subjects (1-4 semesters)

 

• Biostatistics Lecture
• Biostatistics Practical
• Computer-assisted research methodology
• Scientific literature
• Biomedical Ethics

Compulsory subjects linked to a PhD subprogram (specialization) (1-4 semester)

 

Medical Microbiology and Immunology subprogram:

 

• The main pathogenicity factors of bacterial and viral infections
• Immune response against pathogens
• Research methods in microbiological investigations

Compulsory subjects of 3 sub-programs of the Doctoral School of the Interdisciplinary Medicine, of which min. 18 credits must be collected in grades I-IV. during semester.

 

 

Representative dissertations (title, author, supervisor, year)

 

• The role of alarmins - human defensins and HMGB1 - in gastrointestinal diseases

(Kocsis Ágnes Katalin) Mándi Yvette, 2010

• The effects of Herpes simplex virus and Vesicular stomatitis virus infections on the expression patterns of p63 and Bax in epithelial cell lines

(Orosz László) Megyeri Klára, 2010

• Combat resistance in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Schelz Zsuzsanna) Molnár József, 2010
• Comparative molecular genetic studies of nucleic acid detection of human noroviruses

(Kele Beatrix) Deák Judit, 2011

• Results of a local antibiotic management program and national survey on antimicrobial consumption and on the availability of microbiology laboratory services on adult intensive care units in Hungary(Pethő Zsolt) Nagy Erzsébet, 2011
  • Early detection and treatment of certain malignant tumors (Horváth Zsolt) Bak Mihály, 2011
  • Genetic polymorphisms of RAGE, NOD1 and beta-defensins in multiple sclerosis, stroke and pancreatitis (Tiszlavicz Zoltán László) Mándi Yvett, 2011
  • New possibilities for the tailored therapy of breast cancer patients

(Nikolényi Aliz) Kahán Zsuzsanna, 2011

• Inhibition of drug resistance (Serly Julianna) Molnár József, 2012
• Results of a local antibiotic management program and national survey on antimicrobial consumption and on the availability of microbiology laboratory services on adult intensive care units in Hungary. (Pető Zoltán) Nagy Erzsébet, 2012
• Vaccination against chlamydial and mycobacterial infections (Szabó Ágnes Míra) Miczák András, 2013
• Reverse signaling of tumor necrosis factor. Novel functions of the signaling molecule CKIP-1 (Juhász Kata) Duda Ernő, 2013
• Vapors of benzene, a parquet varnish and a synthetic thinner induce chromosome loss in cells of the Drosophila wing primordia (Soós István) Szabad János, 2014
• The in vitro effects of Herpes simplex virus and Rubella virus on autophagy (Pásztor Kata) Megyeri Klára, 2014
• Modification of quorum sensing in bacterial cultures (Varga Zoltán Gábor) Molnár József, 2014
• Evaluation of protective and pathological immune response against chlamydial infection and re-infection in mice (Mosolygó Tímea) Burián Katalin, 2014
• Genetics of endocrine and exocrine diseases of the pancreas (Németh Balázs) Mándi Yvette, 2014
• The anti-chlamydial activity of defensin-like proteins. (Balogh Emese Petra) Burián Katalin, 2014
• Application of multiplex real-time PCR and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer for the detection and differentiation of the most frequent causative agents of systemic infections from biological fluids (Horváth Ádám) Somogyvári Ferenc, 2014
• Comparison of the effects of resistance modifiers on prostate cancer, mouse lymphoma and colon cancer cells (Csonka Ákos) Molnár József, 2016
• Investigation of Herpes simplex-1 latency in vivo and in vitro (Dósa Sándor) Endrész Valéria, 2016
• Genetic background of neurological diseases (Szekeres Márta) Somogyvári Ferenc -Szolnoki Zoltán, 2016
• Experimental study of radiogenic heart damage using in vitro and in vivo animal models (Kiscsatári Laura) Kahán Zsuzsanna, 2016
• The investigation of lymphocyte activation processes and an inflammatory biomarker in autoimmune connective tissue diseases. (Csörgő-Legány Nóra ) Balog Attila, 2017
• High-throughput transcriptomic analysis of Pseudorabies virus (Oláh Péter) Boldogkői Zsolt, 2017
• Phenotypic and genotypic investigation of antibiotic resistance of clinical Bacteroides isolates (Eitel Zsuzsa) Nagy Erzsébet, 2017
• Epidemiology of most frequent infectious complications in immunocompromised patients: focusing on bacteraemia, CMV and HHV-6 infections in haematological patients, and following autologous stem cell t (Piukovics Klára) Urbán Edit, 2017
• Objective decision making between conventional and oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery or mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction. (Pukancsik Dávid) Mátrai Zoltán-Kásler Miklós, 2017
• Seroprevalence of Some Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infections in Patient Groups of Special Epidemiological Relevance in Hungary (Balla Eszter) Urbán Edit, 2018
• Multiplatform analysis of herpesvirus transcriptomes. (Csabai Zsolt) Boldogkői Zsolt-Tombácz Dóra, 2018
• Investigation of the adaptive immune response in immune-mediated diseases. (Dulic Sonja) Balog Attila, 2018
• A kardiovaszkuláris rendszer és a gasztrointesztinális traktus Chlamydia fertőzésének modellezése (Lantos Ildikó Ilona) Endrész Valéria, 2018
• New approaches in the neoadjuvant systemic therapy of breast cancer (Rusz Orsolya) Kahán Zsuzsanna, 2018
• Epidemiological- and antibiotic susceptibility investigation of Hungarian Bacteroides fragilis group clinical isolates (Sárvári Károly Péter) Urbán Edit , 2018
• Analysis of Contributing Factors of the Breast Cancer Mortality Rate In Hungary Between 2002 And 2014 (Újhelyi Mihály) Mátrai Zoltán-Bak Mihály, 2018
• Development of a novel chlamydia growth-monitoring method and its application for screening anti- and pro-chlamydial compounds. (Varga-Bogdanov Anita) Deák Judit-Virók Dezső, 2018
• Multidrug resistance reversing activity of organoselenium compounds. (Gajdács Márió) Spengler Gabriella, 2019
• Individualised radiotherapy serving reduced toxicity in breast and prostate cancer. (Kószó Renáta Lilla) Varga Zoltán, 2019

 

• 2. PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

 

Head of subprogram:

Edit Paulik MD, PhD associate professor, Head of Department

University of Szeged Faculty of Medicine

Department of Public Health

Address: 10 Dóm square, Szeged, 6720

Phone: +36-62-54-5119

E-mail: paulik.edit@med.u-szeged.hu

 

The Preventive Medicine subprogram covers researches in the light of a multidisciplinary approach. The research focuses on the complexity of the determinants of the state of health to investigate the correlations between morbidity and mortality caused by diseases with public health importance with lifestyle, behaviour, socio-economic environment, exposure to natural and artificial environments, and healthcare and the development of health technology. The most important method is epidemiology, but the tools of sociology, psychology, environmental epidemiology, nutrition science, as well as health economics are also used. The aim of the research is to make the results contribute to the prevention of the most challenging non-communicable diseases today, reducing the disease burden and mortality, and increasing the cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

 

Research topics

 

Health status, quality of life and health behaviour of various populations (youth, chronic patients, etc.)

(Supervisor: Edit Paulik associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Theory and practice of supporting smoking cessation in the health care

(Supervisor: Edit Paulik associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Nanoparticles in the macro- and micro environment: health damaging effects and their prevention

(Supervisor: László Nagymajtényi professor emeritus)

 

The role of environmental xenobiotics and lifestyle in the development of diseases

(Supervisor: Andrea Szabó assistant professor)

 

Analytical epidemiological studies of non-communicable diseases

(Supervisor: Edina Horváth Kőrösiné assistant professor)

 

Sociocultural aspects of acculturation

(Supervisor: Regina Molnár assistant professor)

 

Examination of the decision making behaviour in healthcare professional selection and loyalty among patients receiving medical care

(Supervisor: Norbert Buzás associate professor, Head of Department)

 

The role of health behaviour and technology acceptance in the therapy management and therapeutical efficacy of diabetic patients

(Supervisors: Norbert Buzás associate professor, Head of Department and Orsolya Papp-Zipernovszky assistant professor)

 

Examinations of factors determining the lifetime of dental implants

(Supervisors: Zoltán Baráth associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Forensic aspects of oral injuries

(Supervisors Zoltan Baráth associate professor Head of Department and Éva Kereszty associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Informal payment in healthcare system

(Supervisor: Éva Kereszty associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Drug-related intoxication and deaths in forensic and clinical practice – with particular reference to designer drugs

(Supervisors: Éva Kereszty associate professor, Head of Department and László Institóris associate professor)

 

Sudden cardiac death in forensic medicine practice: difficulties in differential diagnostics

(Supervisors: Éva Kereszty associate professor, Head of Department and Róbert Sepp associate professor, Head of Department)

 

 

Development of Telerehabilitation Technologies

(Supervisors: István Kósa associate professor, Head of Department and Mária Barnai associate professor, Head of Department)

 

Survey of medical students' attitudes towards their vocation

(Supervisor: Péter Torzsa associate professor)

 

Balance rehabilitation and preventive balance trainings

(Supervisor: Edit Nagy associate professor)

Assessment of the decisive factors in the prevention of the development and the progression of polyneuropathy in endocrine disorders

(Supervisor: Tamás Várkonyi professor)

 

Application of efficient therapy with prevention of weight gain and hypoglycaemia in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes

(Supervisor: Tamás Várkonyi professor)

 

Selective and indicated secondary prevention of psychotic spectrum disorders

(Supervisor: István Szendi associate professor)

 

Training plan – Preventive Medicine

 

Training plan – Preventive medicine subprogram

Compulsory subjects (1-4 semesters)

 

• Biostatistics Lecture
• Biostatistics Practical
• Computer-assisted research methodology
• Scientific literature
• Biomedical Ethics

 

Compulsory subjects linked to a PhD subprogram (specialization) (1-4 semester)

 

Preventive Medicine Subprogram

 

• Epidemiological Methods
• Prevention of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases
• Environmental Health

Compulsory subjects of 3 sub-programs of the Doctoral School of the Interdisciplinary Medicine, of which min. 18 credits must be collected in grades I-IV. during semester

 

Representative dissertations (title, author, supervisor, year)

 

• The effect of regular physical activity on health and health behaviour (Bóka Ferenc) Paulik Edit, 2010
• Neurotoxicity of a modelled complex environmental heavy metal exposure in rats. (Kőrösiné Horváth Edina) Papp András, 2011
• Health, health-related behavior and Quality of Life of middle- and old-aged women in Hungary (Maróti-Nagy Ágnes) Paulik Edit, 2011
• New approaches for the prevention of radiation lung damage in breast cancer (Varga Zoltán) Kahán Zsuzsanna, 2012
• Individualized treatment of early breast cancer (Kelemen Gyöngyi) Kahán Zsuzsanna 2012
• Methodological approaches to evidence based guidelines in burn injury (Kiss Erika) Horváth Andrea Rita, 2012
• Central nervous effect of manganase in rats investigated by repeated simultaneous electrophysiological and behavioral recording (Takács Szabolcs) Papp András 2012
• Iron oxide nanoparticles and their toxicological effects: in vivo and in vitro studies (Szalai Brigitta) Vezér Tünde, 2012
• The complexities of health status and its influencing factors among people living along the Hungarian-Romanian (Nédó Erika) Paulik Edit, 2012
• General and nervous system effects of the neurotoxic and metal manganese under various circumstances of application (Máté Zsuzsanna) Vezér Tünde, 2012
• Epidemiological aspects of cardiometabolic risk (Hulmán Ádám) Karsai János and Nyári Tibor, 2014
• Investigation of the risk factors of preterm birth and infant mortality in Hungary – epidemiological and cost-effectiveness analyse (Nyári Csaba) Nyári Tibor, 2015
• Hospital hygienic surveillance studies and their application (Patyi Márta) Hajdú Edit, 2015
• Functional neurotoxicity of arsenic and manganese as environmental agents and the possible protective role of natural antioxidants (Sárközi Kitti) Papp András and Szabó Andrea, 2015
• Evaluation of the Hungarian ambulatory antibacterial use in urinary tract infections with different methods (Juhász Zoltán) Hajdú Edit, 2017
• Complex infection control strategies at the neonatal intensive care unit with a special focus on hand hygiene (Szél Borbála) Tálosi Gyula, 2017
• Longitudinal studies: repeated measurements and trends on biomedical data (László Anna) Bari Ferenc, 2017
• Effect of the allergic inflammatory disease in the upper respiratory tract to the cognitive functions and the physical performance. (Tokodi Margaréta) Rovó László and Bella Zsolt, 2018
• Investigations of certain organ specific toxic effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles by in vivo and in vitro methods (Horváth Tamara) Papp András and Vezér Tünde, 2019
• Reproductive health information, behaviour and sexual education of adolescent girls in Hungary (Varga-Tóth Andrea) Paulik Edit, 2019

 

 

• 3. MEDICAL GENETICS AND GENOMICS

 

Head of subprogram Márta Széll DSc, habil, professor

Department of Medical Genetics

Address: H-6720, 4 Somogyi Béla street, Hungary

Phone: +36 62 545 134, 54 5898

E-mail: szell.marta@med.u-szeged.hu

 

The Medical Genetics and Genomic PhD subprogram welcomes freshly graduated physicians and biologists. The subprogram includes hypothesis-testing in genetics and hypothesis-generating genomics in the field of biomedical research. Our investigations aim to identify rare mutations and common polymorphisms in order to elucidate the mechanisms of rare and common diseases. The results of these investigations contribute to the establishment of genotype-phenotype correlations, population screening studies, diagnostic methods and provide solid basis for the development of novel, causative therapeutic modalities for the affected patients. Beside the laboratory work in our molecular laboratories, the PhD students will become active members of our scientific community, they will learn how to work in a multidisciplinary team, to write scientific papers, to prepare to scientific conferences. They will also attend traditional PhD courses, journal clubs and seminars.

Research topics

 

Genetic examinations in congenital heart defects

(Supervisors: Márta Széll professor and Dóra Nagy assistant professor)

 

Genetic examination of rare monogenic diseases – Genodermatoses

(Supervisor: Nikoletta Nagy assistant professor)

 

Developing intelligent microscopy systems

(Supervisors: Péter Horváth professor and Attila Farkas-Kertész PhD)

 

Use of chemically modified oligonucleotides for in site-specific mutagenesis and targeted DNA-methylation in vivo

(Supervisor: Györgyi Ferenc research associate)

 

Development of new-generation serum-based tumour diagnostics

(Supervisor: Tibor Pankotai assistant professor)

 

Mapping the connection between DNA repair and tumorigenesis

(Supervisor: Tibor Pankotai assistant professor)

 

Training Plan –Medical Genetics and Genomics

Compulsory subjects (1-4 semesters)

 

• Biostatistics Lecture
• Biostatistics Practical
• Computer-assisted research methodology
• Scientific literature
• Biomedical Ethics

Compulsory subjects linked to a PhD subprogram (specialization) (1-4 semester)

 

Medical Genetics and Genomics Subprogram

 

• Clinical Genetics 1
• Clinical Genetics 2
• Actuality in human genetics

 

Compulsory subjects of 3 sub-programs of the Doctoral School of the Interdisciplinary Medicine, of which min. 18 credits must be collected in grades I-IV. during semester.

 

 

Representative dissertations (title, author, supervisor, year)

 

• Expression of the apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC) in liver metastasis of colorectal cancer and its correlation with clinical data and other prognostic and predictive proteins (Tóth Csaba) Sükösd Farkas, 2018