“Both of my first-year students are conducting research that will help physicians in the future”

He is a distinguished cardiology expert and a supervisor of two first-year Ph.D. students. He has outstanding clinical and scientific knowledge, exceptional mentorship, and dedication to help students to advance their studies. In October, Prof. Dr. Gábor Duray was named Supervisor of the Month (Year 1) at the Centre for Translational Medicine.

Prof. Dr. Gábor Duray has been involved in CTM's program for four years, and currently has two first-year Ph.D. students. One of them is Dr. Judit Liebermann, who is investigating the optimal timing of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with acute myocardial infarction. “This is an important research topic because the mortality rate of heart attack is high, but there is also a risk of an operation being carried out too early. Therefore, it is essential to make a good decision about when to wait with the surgery until the patient gets more stable and when to start it immediately.” In her other research topic, Dr. Liebermann is investigating the effect of BMI on postoperative complications in patients undergoing open-heart surgery.

The other Ph.D. student of Prof. Dr. Duray is Dr. Bernadett Miriam László-Dobai, who joined the CTM training from the Târgu Mures Emergency Clinical County Hospital. “She is comparing the safety and effectiveness of pacing modalities in patients with bradycardia. This question is important because significant innovations have been made in this field in recent years, but their benefits have not yet been fully clarified. I am glad that my first-year students have research topics that will help doctors in the future.”

Prof. Dr. Duray is very proud that one of his second-year Ph.D. students, Dr. Nina Galdzytska, is already helping current first-year students as a Scientific Methodology Supervisor, in addition to her own research. In her project, she is exploring the role of inflammatory biomarkers in developing severe cardiovascular outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease. “My other second-year Ph.D. student is Dr. Adolf Lichtfusz, who is already working as a cardiac surgeon at our hospital, the Central Hospital of Northern Pest – Military Hospital. In his first project, he investigated the effectiveness of transcatheter mitral valve repair in patients with heart failure, and he has already submitted a publication on this topic. His research results are already being applied in clinical practice, which is a fantastic achievement. This is what translational medicine is all about: translating research findings into patient care.”

(Emese Szabó)