The legendary medical training site in Szeged has been renovated

The University of Szeged's (SZTE) new health sciences training centre, named after biochemist Ilona Banga, was inaugurated on Tuesday, after being built and equipped with EU funding of almost HUF 9 billion. The project was carried out by Aktív Kft..

The basement of the building houses the mechanical engineering, the ground floor has the common areas and the simulation operating theatre, while the mezzanine level houses the offices and a large lecture theatre. On the first, second and third floors there are laboratories and simulation spaces, while the attic houses the animal house and associated units. The building's teaching technology systems allow practical training to be recorded and evaluated. Students can also follow interventions in the simulation theatres while sitting in the seminar rooms.

The University of Szeged plays a pioneering role in Hungarian medicine

Rector László Rovó said at the ceremony that the building of the former surgical clinic, which houses the theoretical education block, is a legendary place for medical education. Over the past almost a hundred years, pioneering procedures have been performed here, including the first kidney transplant in Hungary.

Ilona Banga was born in 1906 in Hódmezővásárhely, she completed her university studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Szeged, and returned to work as a primary collaborator of Albert Szent-Györgyi after studying abroad. He played an important role in research into the process of biological oxidation, which was awarded the Nobel Prize, and in the discovery of actin, a protein that makes up muscles.