Team Event @ Kletterwald

A few days ago, the Biomarkers team came together for a team-building event at Kletterwald München. All nine team members, Laura Schlieker, Adelina Khoroshevskaya, Rebecca Freudling, Sarah Mwiberi Juckel, Maria Blanco, Gilary Evans Vera Nuñez, Stephan Bischofberger, Tim Müller and Maria Stark, participated in a 4-hour climbing session that began with a detailed safety introduction. They tackled various climbing parcours, each designed with different levels of difficulty to challenge them. 

Despite the rain, they continued to climb and enjoyed the experience. A break halfway through allowed the team to rest and refresh with coffee, tea, and other beverages before completing the remaining parcours. 

Following the climbing session, the team gathered in Giesing for a meal of pizza and pasta. It was a good opportunity to discuss the day’s activities and further strengthen our team’s connection. 

The event was successful in building teamwork and providing a unique, shared experience.  

Staburo Summer Party 2024

Staburo’s Highlights from PSI 2024

From June 16-19, our Staburo colleagues Markus Waser, Yesilda Balavarca, Laura Schlieker, Hannes Buchner and Rebecca Freudling attended an enlightening PSI conference at the Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, covering topics like Bayesian Borrowing, Estimands, and Biomarkers ESIG. The presentation on “Neurodiversity at Work” and its panel discussion on Tuesday were particularly impactful. Social events, including a memorable Gala Dinner with a fantastic DJ, added to the experience. A special session on Monday featured one-minute summaries of all 60 posters, where Hannes Buchner was presenting. Our poster, “Conditional vs Marginal Effects – A Systematic Review of OS and PFS on ClinicalTrials.gov,” generated significant interest.

The Biomarkers European Special Interest Group (ESIG) held a session titled “Advancing Biomarker Insights in Precision Medicine and Digital Health.” Highlights included Marzia A. Scelsi’s talk on digital biomarkers and a presentation on machine learning in precision medicine by Karl Köchert and Nils Ternès. The conference also allowed for a face-to-face meeting of the Biomarker ESIG, with lunch in the Executive Lounge of Beurs van Berlage. Members had the chance to network with co-leads Nicole Krämer and Guillaume Desachy, as well as other key members like Karl Köchert, Nils Ternès, Jinesh Shah, and Kostas Sechidis.

Overall, it was an incredible experience filled with knowledge sharing and networking. We’re excited to apply these new insights to future projects!

Staburo @ PSI conference 2024

We are thrilled to announce that our team will be participating in the PSI 2024 Conference, which will take place from Sunday, June 16th to Wednesday, June 19th at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The PSI Conference is a premier event for statisticians and quantitative scientists involved in drug development and healthcare. This year’s conference is expected to draw between 350 and 450 experts from industry, academia, and regulatory agencies worldwide.

The conference will span three days, offering a broad program filled with plenary and parallel sessions, breakout discussions, workshops, and a poster session. For this last one, our colleagues Maarten van Dijk, Seyma Öztürk, Stephan Bischofberger and Hannes Buchner have prepared a poster as a joint work between them, and it will be presented by Managing Director Hannes Buchner. The poster contains a systematic review for which data from all recently published Phase III oncology trials was extracted from ClinicalTrials.gov. Following review of all 165 trials fitting the search criteria only a surprisingly low number of trials adjusted their cox model for additional prognostic covariates, a method which has been shown to lead to significant improvements of effect sizes.

Additionally, our colleagues Laura Schlieker, Markus Waser, Rebecca Freudling and Yesilda Balavarca will be present on site and will participate in a variety of social events, including a welcome reception on Sunday, a networking event on Monday, and the grand gala dinner on Tuesday evening.

We look forward to engaging with the vibrant community at PSI 2024 and hope to see you in Amsterdam!

Staburo @ 57th EMWA Conference in Valencia

Our two colleagues Kathi Künnemann and Ulrike Fischer, both Senior Disclosure Managers and Medical Writers, attended the EMWA conference 2024 in Valencia. It was a truly enriching experience not only for its professional and educational content but also for its warm and inclusive atmosphere.

Each of our two colleagues proudly presented a poster, contributing to the wealth of knowledge shared at the event. Ulrike presented: ‘An attempt to translate estimands into plain language’  and Kathi presented: ‘Plain language summaries created with Artificial intelligence’. The opportunity to expand their understanding through workshops and engage in meaningful exchanges with other medical writers was invaluable.

Highlights included high-quality presentations on AI, meeting the translators’ group, and insightful roundtable discussions as well as the sunny weather of Valencia.