The Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, coordinates educational project of 8 European universities OEMONOM (Open access Educational Materials on Naturally Occurring Molecules – sources, biological activity and use). The main objective of the project is preparation of comprehensible, free and easily available materials for professionals, students of biomedicinal disciplines as well as lay persons in relation to the effect of natural compounds on human health.
The program was opened on 19th June 2023 with the dissemination meeting of the “Open access Educational Materials on Naturally Occurring Molecules - sources, biological activity and use (OEMONOM)“ at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové. The event attracted 20 foreign researchers/university teachers from non-partner countries of the project, ie. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Ukraine, but also from other universities in partner countries like the University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy and the University of Coimbra in Portugal. Also 15 Czech participants from different fields – pharmacists, university teachers, researchers, manufacturers as well as lay persons participated.
The event was started by prof. Přemysl Mladěnka, the project leader, who introduced the OEMONOM project with emphasis on vitamins. His further presentation focused on the topic of Novel discoveries in the field of vitamin K. In the morning part of the event prof. Mladěnka also discussed the proposal of new ERASMUS+ projects cooperation partnerships. Afternoon session was initiated by an online address of the dean, who could not participate in person at the meeting. A practical example of prepared materials – vitamin A was further shared with the audience by dr. Alejandro Carazo from the Czech project team.
In parallel, Monday 19th June 2023 was also the first day of another event organized within the OEMONOM project. That was the Intense learner meeting for students which was held from 19th to 24th June 2023 at the faculty premises. The participants were students from partner universities. In total there were 16 students, 2 from each institution. From the University of Pecs there was 1 student from Kenya, from Charles University we had 1 student from Slovakia and 1 student from Iran, other students were the same nationality as the university of origin.
The first day of the meeting was a joint programme with the dissemination meeting so the students could take advantage of meeting real professionals from this sector. The next days were devoted to lectures, tests, and discussions on the topics of vitamins. There were lectures in a total duration of almost 13 hours (13 x 60 minutes), 2 accompanying lectures (Reactive oxygen species, Nuclear receptors) – almost 3 hours, and test + discussion of the acquired knowledge – 5.5 hours approximately.
The lectures covered the topics of all 13 known vitamins (i.e. vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, B12, C, D, E, H(B) and K. The lecturers were members of the Czech project team – prof. Přemysl Mladěnka, assoc. prof. Jana Pourová, dr. Marie Vopršalová, dr. Alejandro Carazo, dr. Eduard Jirkovský and dr. Marcel Hrubša, assoc. prof. Iva Boušová as well as a member of the Slovak project team - assoc. prof. Marek Máťuš.
The organizer also prepared an interesting social programme for the students so that they could learn more about the Czech Republic and the city of Hradec Králové.
The project was very positively assessed by students. Their feedbacks are available on the project web page.
Text a photo: OEMONOM CZ team
The project is supported by the Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 2.