Awardee: Dr. Maria Magdalena Gabriel, Resident at the Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
Host Institution:Dr. Anna Bersano, Director of the Cerebrovascular Disease Unit of IRCCS Foundation C Besta Neurological Institute, Milan, Italy
Twitter: @Maria_M_Gabriel
From March to June 2023, I had the great possibility to attend the Cerebrovascular Disease Unit and research group of Dr. Anna Bersano at the Carlo Besta Institute Milan. Besides a beautiful time in one of the most magnificent cities in Europe, I experienced an exceptional and outstanding 4-month stay at the Carlo Besta Institution and would like to thank Anna and her inspiring team including the whole staff of the neurobiological laboratory and the cerebrovascular ward. Working with her and her very welcoming, motivated and openminded team helped quickly to overcome language barriers and allowed to connect easily with these young clinical scientists on their daily routine as well as on their personal research fields.
Besides the opportunity to attend the daily patient rounds with a joint discussion of each case, I took part at patients’ admissions as well as in interdisciplinary meetings where complex vascular cases and endovascular treatments where discussed. One of my personal highlights was the outpatient clinic for rare cerebrovascular diseases such as CADASIL, Fabry’s Disease, Moyamoya arteriopathy, Central Nervous System vasculitis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy or arteriovenous malformations. Getting in touch with patients with monogenic cerebral small-vessel diseases e.g. COL4 A1/2 mutations for the first time shaped my experiences in the large and complex field of stroke enormously and confirmed my aspiration to specialize in the neurovascular field.
Besides these clinical experiences, it was a pleasure to have worked together on newly introduced diseases such as iatrogenic cerebral amyloid angiopathy. I am particularly proud for the opportunity to have published a review together with the team in the field of CAA and to have started a new cooperation with an intensified investigation of CAA patients of Hannover Medical School investigating their pathologic CNS tissue with the aim to intensify insights in the field of CAA. I am very much looking forward to future collaborations and I am thankful to the ESO to support these important exchanges. My gratitude goes to the Department-to-Department Committee for their generous and important support of young researchers like us. I hope to be part of such valuable projects as a mentor in the future and encourage everyone to apply for the next Department-to-Department program in Milan as well as in Hannover.
With many thanks
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Maria M. Gabriel
About the ESO Department to Department Visit Programme
The Department to Department Visit Programme aims to provide insight into stroke departments outside the applicant`s home country through a grant of EUR 1,500 offered to up to 10 young physicians and researchers to support a short visit of a week or as a contribution to a longer visit to an European department or laboratory.
