The number of foreign students at the University of Debrecen has continued to grow, with almost 7,800 students studying at UD in the 2025/2026 academic year. Attila Jenei, Director of the Coordinating Center for International Education, advocates the continuous development of the English-language training system to maintain the popularity of the institution in the international student market and to increase competitiveness.
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The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Debrecen awarded this year’s Debrecen Prize for Molecular Medicine to molecular geneticist Jeffrey M. Friedman, a medical researcher at the Rockefeller University of New York. The professor and his colleagues identified leptin, a hormone produced by adipose tissue, which plays a role in regulating body weight. Professor Jeffrey M. Friedman received the award at a ceremony held at the University of Debrecen on Tuesday, after which he gave a lecture on the causes and treatment options of obesity.
Dr. Ildikó Horváth, Director of the Pulmonology Clinic and Professor of the University of Debrecen, will be serving for the next three years as Secretary General of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). The new leader was elected last year and she was formally inducted at the most recent conference of this European organization. She will be the first Hungarian professional to hold the high position of Secretary General.
This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Mary E. Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Shimon Sakaguchi of Japan. In 2023, the Japanese professor's scientific work was recognized with the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Debrecen. Since the award was established, the professor at Osaka University is the third recipient to receive a Nobel Prize.
The most recent graduates from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Debrecen were declared doctors on Friday. There were as many as 147 medical doctors of Hungarian and foreign nationality receiving their diplomas at the ceremony.
What does Client Gate have to do with Tibor Kapu becoming an astronaut? What could have silenced the otherwise rather talkative Shux and Tibor Kapu for six minutes on board the spacecraft named Grace? What does it mean in terms of space travel when a file upload gets stuck? These, among other things, as well as the process of becoming an astronaut and the special professional relationship between them were the topics discussed by research astronaut Kapu and astronaut candidate Gyula Cserényi in the theater hall of the University of Debrecen on Wednesday at an interview conducted by Vice Rector for Academic Affairs László Csernoch.
The research group headed by Assistant Professor Eszter Csoma has won the Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen and the University of Debrecen Publication Award for its scientific article summarizing research findings on polyomaviruses. Regarding the new polyomaviruses that infect both animals and humans, there are still quite a few unanswered questions. The primary focus of the investigation of the researchers was if the viruses are currently present in Hungary, at what age we tend to get infected, and if they infect our respiratory tract.
Preliminary research has confirmed that air pollutants in the interior, coming from printers, furniture, and carpets, pose a considerable health risk and may increase the occurrence rate of cancerous growths, for example. In a recent study, experts from the University of Debrecen reviewed and analyzed the latest data available on the concentration of volatile organic pollutants in indoor environments and conducted a quantitative assessment of the related risks. Through this research, their aim is to draw attention to the negative health effects of chemicals found in indoor environments. The researchers published their findings in an international scientific journal and won a Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen and the University of Debrecen Publication Award for their work.
Researchers at the University of Debrecen have identified a new regulatory mechanism that determines the functioning of genes. This discovery could also constitute the foundation for a more targeted treatment of pathological conditions such as inflammation and tumors in the long run. These groundbreaking findings have been published in a prestigious international scientific journal, and the research efforts have also been recognized through the publication award granted by the University of Debrecen and Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen.
Basic research conducted by experts at the University of Debrecen into a special protein that plays a fundamental role in regulating cell functions may also contribute to the development of more effective anti-cancer therapies. Their discovery opens up new possibilities for influencing cell function without altering DNA. A paper summarizing the results of the research was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.