On 4th December, after President Gitanas Nausėda signed a decree on the composition of the new Government, Assoc. Prof. Dr Marija Jakubauskienė, Director of the Institute of Health Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of Vilnius University (VU), was appointed Minister of Health of the Republic of Lithuania. The VU community is delighted with this significant recognition and wishes her the best of luck in her future endeavours.

Dr. Carlos Viscasillas Vázquez, Vilnius University, Faculty of Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy (ITPA), researcher undertook an academic visit to Lund University as part of the Erasmus+ for Teaching program.

From November 21 to 25, Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) psychology students Vlada Šavliukevič, Mayla Milanovič, Karina Makovska, and Rūta Matiukaitė, along with the Director of the Institute of Psychology, Prof. Dr. Rasa Pilkauskaitė-Valickienė, and Prof. Dr. Aistė Diržytė, participated in the international psychology conference “NextGen in Psychology,” held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

As Christmas and New Year's approach, many people are planning holiday trips, which includes booking accommodations through online platforms. However, one should not trust them blindly – it's important to be aware of potential fraud risks. Ramunas Liubertas, Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at "NOD Baltic" and ESET expert, shares 5 key tips to help protect your accounts, securely book accommodation, and avoid potential losses.

36 kilograms is the average amount of plastic packaging waste generated by a single EU citizen per year. Longer-term projections are equally grim, with the amount of plastic waste estimated to triple by 2060 globally. Increasing consumption is driving the search for alternatives – biodegradable and durable materials that would not only replace but also outperform synthetic plastics.

On 27 November, at the last meeting of the VU Council for the 2019–2024 term of office, the candidature of Prof. Rimvydas Petrauskas for the position of VU Rector was approved. The candidature was supported by all Council members present at the meeting. The proposed schedule for the candidate's meetings with the VU community and the election was also approved.

Scientists from Vilnius University's (VU) Life Sciences Centre (LSC) have discovered a unique way for cells to silence specific genes without cutting DNA. This groundbreaking research, led by Prof. Patrick Pausch and published in the journal Nature Communications, reveals a new way how to silence genes that is akin to pressing a "pause" button on certain genetic instructions within cells.

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. As many as 280 million people worldwide are affected by this disease, which is why researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that helps to identify depression based on both speech and brain neural activity. This multimodal approach, combining two different data sources, allows a more accurate and objective analysis of a person’s emotional state, opening the door to a new phase of depression diagnosis.

An international team of scientists has identified a surprising factor that accelerates the degradation of lithium-ion batteries leading to a steady loss of charge. This discovery provides a new understanding of battery life and offers strategies to combat self-discharge, which could improve performance in various applications from smartphones to electric vehicles.

In a meeting with Mr Ala-Laurinaho Juha, Chief Researcher at the Department of Electronics and Nano-Engineering at Aalto University, the progress of the project and future challenges were discussed, and opportunities for cooperation in the fields of science and studies were analysed. The infrastructure of the Antenna Measurement Laboratory, the applied research methods and the possibility to integrate them in the teaching of green engineering were presented.