Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
47th FEBS Congress, Tours, Fransa, 8 - 12 Temmuz 2023, cilt.13, sa.2, ss.256
Higher vocational education (HVE) combines theory and practice
to prepare students to successfully enter the world of work. This
education in health sciences faces a significant transformation in
recent years. Technological advances lead vocational health education
to foster a culture of innovation in academic and industrial
fields. We integrated an elective program for both training
of students and building a scientific research environment in
Pathology Laboratory Techniques (PLT) associate degree program.
We built a collaborative research team. First-year students
who wished to involve in this program were trained by the
research team to develop skills for reviewing literature, identifying
research questions through creative thinking and preparing
project proposals. We also introduced TUBITAK 2209A
Research Project Support Program. TUBITAK, the leading governmental
agency for funding of research in Turkey, encourages
undergraduate students at universities to conduct research
through 2209A program under guidance of an academic advisor.
After training, a second-year student submitted a project proposal
to 2209A program as the coordinator to investigate effects
of Polygonum cognatum extract on LPS-treated human dermal
fibroblasts seeded on 3D printed TPU scaffolds. The project was
selected for support at the end of the evaluation procedure. The
student is the first one who was awarded this support among students
studying PLT program in Turkey. This project served as a
challenge to motivate other students. Two second-year students
also submitted project proposals to 2209A program which were
also accepted by TUBITAK. One project is to produce 3D
printed prostate tissue models for histopathology training and
other project is to investigate the use of biofriendly Pimpinella
anisum extract as an alternative to xylene. In summary, applying
scientific outlook and integrating technologies will build a
research environment in HVE, develop students’ skills and create
an innovation culture.