THE RISING STARS 2024 CALL
THE CONCEPT
Two young researchers / clinicians, selected by a strict process, will have the opportunity to:
- Present a 15-minute speech at the beginning of the Congress during the “Rising Star” session scheduled on Thursday, January 18, 2024 in front of the international audience of about 500 specialists;
- Receive the personal feedback of the Presidents and Chairmen of the congress who will provide useful advice for the development of the winners’ career as researchers and international congress speakers;
- Be hosted by the congress that will waive registration fee and take care of travel and accommodation costs.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION
In order to participate in the selection process, please present before November 10th, 2023 the following documents:
- Full academic curriculum including publications and / or poster presentations made in the past
- Complete abstract of the original work you would like to present during the congress.
Abstracts can be submitted exclusively online via the congress website.
Select the abstract category: “Rising Star”
Should you not have Internet access, please contact the Organising Secretariat (+377 97 97 35 55 or info@lung-health.org).
SELECTION CRITERIA
Compulsory criteria:
- Abstracts should be related to the topics of the congress.
- The candidate should be the first author of the abstract.
- The abstract should be original.
- The abstract should be presented in English.
- The candidate should not have been included in the faculty of a previous international congress.
The main selecting criteria will be the relevancy and scientific value of the abstract presented, evaluated by the chairmen of the congress. The choice will be made at the Chairmen’s discretion. In case of equality the following priority criteria will be applied.
Priority criteria:
- Age: Priority to researchers / clinicians under 42;
- Provenience: priority for researchers / clinicians working in low–income countries – with limited access to funds.
All the candidates will receive written communication about the outcome of submitted papers around around November 29th, 2023.
Not selected abstracts for the “Rising star” session could be eligible for poster presentation and may compete for the poster prize.
RISING STARS AMONG IWLH Editions
After a difficult selection process, where many interesting abstracts coming from all over the World have been evaluated, we are delighted to present you the Rising Stars of 10th Edition of the International Workshop on Lung Health.

Danilo D’Avino
Ph.D. student, Pharmacology
University of Naples Federico II – Italy
Title: Sex dimorphism contributes to initiation and progression of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice
Topic: IPF – Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Summary >
Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic and progressive interstitial lung disease, where the normal lung architecture is lost and replaced by fibrotic tissue. Epidemiology shows that men are more affected than women and the female sex is associated with major survival. Our data suggest that in early stage of PF both inflammatory reaction and fibrotic process occur in parallel in males and females, but an exacerbated fibrosis process takes place only in males.

Anusmriti Pal
Doctor, Internal Medicine
Pulmonology and Critical Care
Karnali Academy of Health Sciences – Nepal
Title: Nintedanib and its outcome among post-COVID pulmonary fibrosis patients residing in high altitude. Case report
Topic: COVID-19
Summary >
We used anti-fibrotic drug Nintedanib for initial 3-6 months among critical COVID-19 patients and assessed for improved clinical symptoms, oxygen requirement and lung function using pre- and post-treatment High-Resolution Chest Computed tomography Scan and Spirometry. It was found to be associated with improvement both clinically and radiologically with improvement in lung function.

Dr. Yoon Kyung (Rachel) Chang
Postdoctoral researcher, Sydney Pharmacy School
University of Sydney, Australia
Rising Star Scientific Work >
Inhaled bacteriophage (or phage) therapy has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of respiratory infections caused my multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. We have developed novel phage and phage-antibiotic combination formulations for inhaled therapy that can target and kill MDR pathogens in the lungs with promising safety and efficacy profiles in vivo.

Prof. Shital Patil
Consultant in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Pulmonary Medicine
Venaktesh Chest Hospital, Latur Maharshtra India
Rising Star Scientific Work >
Lung fibrosis in Post-covid 19 cases is documented and should be assessed cautiously to have successful treatment outcome. Age above 50 years, male gender, Diabetes, High CT severity, longer duration of illness, proper timing of initiation of BIPAP/NIV therapy, and its early use in comorbid class has documented significant impact on post covid lung fibrosis. Lung fibrosis is known to occur relatively more often in COVID-19 pneumonia cases in presence of hyperglycemia and it will take more than usual time to resolve in presence of Diabetes mellitus. Response to conventional antifibrotics is excellent and it will have positive impact on radiological and clinical outcome in post covid-19 fibrosis cases.

Ms. Efthymia Theofani
PhD candidate, Cellular Immunology Laboratory
Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Greece
Rising Star Scientific Work >
We report an unexplored mechanistic link between impaired TFEB-associated autophagy and excessive NLRP3 signaling that underlies asthma severity. Amelioration of asthma pathogenesis upon TFEB reprogramming, illuminates TFEB as a novel therapeutic target for SA.

Nicol Bernardinello
PhD student at the University of Padova, Italy
Rising star scientific work >
The prognostic role of muc5b rs35705950 genotype in patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) on antifibrotic treatment.

Sara Wijnant
Doctoral researcher, University Ghent, Belgium
Rising star scientific work >
Expression of ACE2, the SARS-COV-2 receptor, in lung tissue of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Ray Animesh
Assistant Professor, Medicine, AIIMS, New Delhi
Rising star scientific work >
Nebulised Amphotericin B versus Oral Itraconazole in Pulmonary Aspergilloma: a parallel group randomized controlled trial.

Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati
Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM)
Rising star scientific work >
Diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) through an electronic nose.

Arjun Khanna
Consultant and Head of the department Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Galaxy institute of Pulmonology, Galaxy Hospital, 5 AGCR enclave, Delhi 110092 and Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital , Kaushambi, UP.
Read more >
“My primary research focuses are Interstitial Lung diseases, Advanced COPD/Respiratory failure, Pulmonary Infections, Sleep Medicine.”
RISING STAR SESSION SCIENTIFIC WORK:
“Differences in Tobacco smoke associated, and Biomass fuel associated Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD) – A unique disease of the Indian Subcontinent” Biomass fuel associated COPD is a unique subset of COPD, encountered in rural India. Most of the patients are unsuspecting nonsmoker, females. The diagnosis of COPD is commonly missed in these patients, they present late in the course of disease and have poor health seeking behavior.

Nicola Lorè
Infections and Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Division of Immunology, Transplantation and Infectious Diseases; Ospedale San Raffaele. Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele MILANO (Italy)
Read more >
“My primary research focuses on studying immunity, with particular attention on host-pathogen interaction in the context of airway diseases. Using different model of in vivo and in vitro infections, I have demonstrated the role of IL-17/IL-17R immune axis in modulating host defense and immunopathology in the lung. Based on my skills in immunology, microbiology and genetics, my current research interests are focused on the mechanistic comprehension of the immune response during chronic respiratory disease.”
RISING STAR SESSION SCIENTIFIC WORK:
“The IL-17s/IL-17Rs axis in airway defense and immunopathology during chronic respiratory disease associated to Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections.”
The exaggerated inflammation and tissue damage, associated to persistent infections, are central pathological features of chronic respiratory diseases. We are interested in elucidating whether the IL-17 cytokines family may modulate chronic lung disease progression associated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa persistent infections.

Isis Fernandez
Helmoltz Centrum Munich
Colombia/Germany
Rising star scientific work >
Circulating MDSC modulate IPF progression by orchestrating immunosuppressive and pro-fibrotic networks.

Matteo Bradicich
Cisanello University Hospital
Pisa , ITALY
Rising star scientific work >
Assessing inflammatory patterns in asthma endotypes; new diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives.

Margit V. Szabari
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care
Wellman Center for Photomedicine
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Budapest
Rising star scientific work >
Using Optical Coherence Tomography to evaluate airway dynamics in vivo.

Dejan Radovanovic
School of Respiratory Diseases-University of Milan
Pulmonary Unit
Ospedale L.Sacco, ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco
Milan, ITALY
Rising star scientific work >
The role of bronchodilation on airway mechanical stress, lung hyperinflation and NO production in stable COPD.

Aran Singanayagam
Academic Clinical Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine
Imperial College London (UK)
Rising star scientific work >
Influence of inhaled corticosteroids on host-defence and the lower respiratory tract microbiota.

Letizia C. Morlacchi, MD
U.O. Broncopneumologia, Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia e dei Trapianti, IRCCS Fondazione Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano
Rising star scientific work >
Serum cytokines patterns in lung transplant recipients.

Andras Bikov
Department of Pulmonology, Semmelweis University – Budapest (Hungary)
Rising star scientific work >
Circulating biomarkers in asthmatic pregnancy.

Aleksandra Górska
Pneumonology and Allergology Department at the Medical University of Gdansk
Gdansk (Poland)
Rising star scientific work >
Risk factors for anaphylaxis and the differences in B3GAT1 and ITGB1 gene expression in patients with mastocytosis.