She has finished her first project as a Ph.D. student and is working on the second and third now. Besides these, she assists the Gynecology-Urology Group as an SMS. She works directly with five 1st-year colleagues, and supports them in every way she can. In February, Isabel Amorim was named Science Methodology Supervisor of the Month.
Isabel Amorim first learned about translational medicine as a dietitian during her master’s studies, and after she looked more deeply at it, she found it very important. She heard about the Centre for Translational Medicine from her supervisor when she was still applying for her Ph.D. studies. “The knowledge that students can acquire here is crucial. Without translational medicine, it takes such a long time to put into practice what has long been proven. For example, when I wrote my undergraduate thesis, I discovered that the fasting time for patients undergoing surgery could be even 15 hours in practice, despite the guidelines are suggesting a much shorter time. This was shocking for me and showed a new opportunity for research.”
As a Ph.D. student, Isabel conducts three studies on the association between anemia, pregnancy outcomes, and congenital anomalies through meta-analyses and registries. At the beginning of her studies, she got great support from Bianca Golzio Navarro Cavalcante, a friend of hers, who has been working as a science methodology supervisor at CTM. After gaining the knowledge, Isabel joined the Centre as an SMS also. “I am the science methodology supervisor of the 1st and 2nd-year students in the Gynecology-Urology Group along with my colleagues, Anett Rancz and Jakub Hoferica. I work directly with five 1st-year colleagues, they are very smart and industrious, and I learn a lot from their research. I support them in every way I can. We have conducted the initial steps and shaped the research questions, and we are currently waiting for the final results to write the manuscript. Of course, we do a lot of teamwork for this to happen with the supervisors, coordinators, statisticians, and my SMS colleagues.”
Isabel conducts weekly project meetings, group meetings, corrects manuscripts, and does additional consultations when necessary. She also assists in the class meetings. “Besides my SMS work, I am a deputy coordinator for the clinical research and patient registries. I have the opportunity to give lectures about research methodology with my co-worker Brigitta Teutsch, and assist the students with methodological input. In Brazil, I worked as a dietitian, mostly with patients with chronic diseases, but my work as a dietitian is limited in Hungary now. Therefore, my focus is on research.” In addition to her tasks as a science methodology supervisor, Isabel, as a Ph.D. student, keeps at least one day a week for her own study to progress with all the work. She loves having as much time as possible for research and doing focused work on it, dedicated to finding solutions. She has finished her first project, and is working on the second and third. It fascinates her that dietitians can improve one’s quality of life and prevent many diseases through nutrition.
(Szabó Emese)