Professor Dr. Milen Georgiev

Position: Head of Department of Plant Cell Biotechnology, CPSBB

Prof. Dr. Milen I. Georgiev is heading both the Department of Plant Cell Biotechnology at CPSBB and Metabolomics Lab at Institute of Microbiology (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences). He has 20 years of experience in natural products field and has published in excess of 200 papers (i.a., Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Molecular Plant, Genome Biology, Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, and Plant Biotechnology Journal, among others). He has delivered 80+ invited lectures in 30 different countries.

His current research focuses on 1) biosynthesis of fine molecules and development of biotech tools for their sustainable mass production, 2) metabolomics and comprehensive metabolite profiling and 3) molecular pharmacology with particular focus on longevity, obesity and photoaging of skin.

Milen is a recipient of Pythagoras award for outstanding scientist by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science (2011, 2015, 2020 and 2024), being the only scientist in Bulgaria to have won four times. Since 2020 he is listed among top 2% in worldwide citation ranking of all scientists and scientific disciplines for five consecutive years and in 2025 was ranked in the top 1% of this list.

Milen serves as an Editor, Associate Editor and Editorial Board member of dozen journals in biotechnology and natural products fields, incl. Phytomedicine, Phytochemistry, Biotechnology Letters, Chinese Medicine, Food Frontiers, Frontiers in Pharmacology, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, eFood, among others. Serving as a chairman he has established the International Conference on Natural Products Utilization: from Plants to Pharmacy Shelf (ICNPU; www.icnpu2025.com), which had six issues so far.

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• Efferth T., Zacchino S., Georgiev M.I., He R.R., Shen X., Albrecht U., Belwal T., Bhutia S.K., Chatterjee M., Chen J., Chen Z.Y., Cho W., Devi S.I., Eid A.H., Orhan I.E., Gao Y., Hosseinzadeh H., Hua Q., Khan H.,…Yücer R. (2025)

  • 30^th Anniversary of Phytomedicine: Looking Back and Forth. Phytomedicine. 149: 157525. (IF 8.3)

• Jahan T., Huda M.N., Zhang K., He Y., Lai D., Dhami N., Quinet M., Ali M.A., Kreft I., Woo SH., Georgiev M.I., Fernie A.R., Zhou M. (2025)
  • Plant secondary metabolites against biotic stresses for sustainable crop protection. Biotechnology Advances. 79: 108520. (IF 12.5)

• Rojo A.I., Buttari B., Cadenas S., Carlos A.R., Cuadrado A., Falcão A.S., López M.G., Georgiev M.I., Grochot-Przeczek A., Gumeni S., Jimenez-Villegas J., Horbanczuk J.O., Konu O., Lastres-Becker I., Levonen A.L., Maksimova V., Michaeloudes C., Mihaylova L.V., Mickael M.E., Milisav I., Miova B., Rada P., Santos M., Seabra M.C., Strac D.S., Tenreiro S., Trougakos I.P., Dinkova-Kostova A.T. (2025)
  • Model organisms for investigating the functional involvement of NRF2 in non-communicable diseases. Redox Biology. 79: 103464. (IF 11.9)

• Stoykova I.D., Koycheva I.K., Binev B.K., Mihaylova L.V., Georgiev M.I. (2025)
  • Molecular approaches to prevent UV-induced premature skin aging: Focus on phytochemicals as photo-protectants. Phytochemistry Reviews. 24(1): 119–150. (IF 7.6)

• Wang S., Zhang X., Gong D.H., Huang Q.Q., Kandegama W., Georgiev M.I., Gao Y.Y., Liao P., Hao G.F. (2025)
  • Sophisticated crosstalk of tryptophan-derived metabolites in plant stress responses. Plant Communications. 6(9): 101425. (IF 11.6)

• Huang X., He Y., Zhang K., Shi Y., Zhao H., Lai D., Lin H., Wang X., Yang Z., Xiao Y., Li W., Ouyang Y., Woo S.H., Quinet M., Georgiev M.I., Fernie A.R., Liu X., Zhou M. (2024)
  • Evolution and domestication of a novel biosynthetic gene cluster contributing to the flavonoid metabolism and high-altitude adaptability of plants in the Fagopyrum genus. Advanced Science. 11(43): e2403603. (IF 14.1)

• Todorova M.N., Savova M.S., Mihaylova L.V., Georgiev M.I. (2024)
  • Punica granatum L. leaf extract enhances stress tolerance and promotes healthy longevity through HLH-30/TFEB, DAF16/FOXO, and SKN1/NRF2 crosstalk in Caenorhabditis elegans. Phytomedicine. 134: 155971. (IF 8.3)

• Lai D., Zhang K., He Y., Fan Y., Li W., Shi Y., Gao Y., Huang X., He J., Zhao H., Lu X., Xiao Y., Cheng J., Ruan J., Georgiev M.I., Fernie A., Zhou M. (2023)
  • Multi-omics identification of a key glycosyl hydrolase gene FtGH1 involved in rutin hydrolysis in Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum). Plant Biotechnology Journal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.14259. (IF 13.8)

• Atanasov A.G., Zotchev S.B., Dirsch V.M., Orhan I.E., Banach M., Rollinger J.M., Barreca D., Weckwerth W., Bauer R., Bayer E.A., Majeed M., Bishayee A., Bochkov V., Bonn G.K., Braidy N., Bucar F., Cifuentes A., D’Onofrio G., Bodkin M., Diederich M., Dinkova-Kostova A.T., Efferth T., El Bairi K., Arkells N., Fan T-P., Fiebich B.L., Freissmuth M., Georgiev M.I. et al. (2021)
  • Natural products in drug discovery: advances and opportunities. Nature Reviews in Drug Discovery. 20: 200-216. (IF 112.288)

• Ding M., Zhang K., He Y., Zuo Q., Zhao H., He M., Georgiev M.I., Park S.U., Zhou M. (2021)
  • FtBPM3 modulates the orchestration of FtMYB11-mediated flavonoids biosynthesis in Tartary buckwheat. Plant Biotechnology Journal. 19(7): 1285-1287. (IF 13.263)

• Savova M.S., Vasileva L.V., Mladenova S.G., Amirova K.M., Ferrante C., Orlando G., Wabitsch M., Georgiev M.I. (2021)
  • Ziziphus jujuba Mill. leaf extract restrains adipogenesis by targeting PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy. 141: 111934. (IF 7.419)

• Shi M., Liao P., Nile S.H., Georgiev M.I., Kai G. (2021)
  • Biotechnological exploration of transformed root culture for value-added products. Trends in Biotechnology. 39(2): 137-149. (IF 21.942)

• Vasileva L.V., Savova M.S., Tews D., Wabitsch M., Georgiev M.I. (2021)
  • Rosmarinic acid attenuates obesity and obesity-related inflammation in human adipocytes. Food and Chemical Toxicology. 149: 112202. (IF 5.572)