Four young scientists from across Europe are being recognised for work spanning diagnostic innovation, patient safety and access to healthcare as the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) marks European Laboratory Day on 5 November.

The four professionals, from Ireland, Türkiye, Italy and the Republic of Moldova, were selected from 50 applications and nominations across 26 countries for the fifth edition of the EFLM’s Leaders in the Lab campaign.

Running under the theme One profession. Many talents, the initiative aims to highlight the contribution of laboratory medicine professionals to healthcare.

The organisers said that research, innovation, collaboration, mentoring and improvements to quality and patient safety all provided means to demonstrate leadership that did not depend on seniority or formal job titles.

The four scientist recipients are:

Stephanie Yates, from Ireland, who became her country’s first medical laboratory scientist to secure a national healthcare innovation fellowship. Her work is helping bring laboratory expertise into healthcare innovation and service design.

Hikmet Can Çubukçu from Türkiye combined laboratory medicine with software engineering to develop free digital tools that make complex quality-control approaches more accessible to laboratories, supporting efforts to protect patient safety.

Federico Angelo Cazzaniga, from Italy, is researching earlier detection of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, using samples that are simpler and less invasive to collect.

Galina Coltuclu, from Moldova, helped establish a specialised blood cancer diagnostic service that has widened access to testing previously often requiring samples to be sent abroad. Since its introduction in 2022, the service has supported around 1,000 patients.

Monica Dugaesescu, chair of the EFLM Young Scientists Committee, said the four scientists demonstrated different forms of leadership through discovery, problem-solving, improved access to diagnostics or ensuring that laboratory medicine expertise informed wider healthcare decisions.

European Laboratory Day is held annually on 5 November to raise awareness of the role laboratory medicine plays in diagnosis, treatment decisions and patient safety. The EFLM is inviting laboratories, national societies and professionals across the continent to take part in its campaign.

Pic: Yates, Çubukçu, Cazzaniga and Coltuclu