The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China initiated a visit at CPSBB to meet with the Director of the Center, Prof. Dr. Tsanko Gechev, and the Head of CPSBB’s “Plant Cell Biotechnology” Department, Prof. Dr. Milen Georgiev. The official delegation included representatives from the Chinese Embassy to Bulgaria and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

The meeting started with a presentation of Prof. Gechev who showcased the CPSBB’s strategic objectives, organizational structure, research departments and international partnerships. Prof. Georgiev highlighted potential opportunities for collaboration between CPSBB and Chinese Universities and institutes for mutual research projects in the domains of Plant biotechnology and metabolomics, incl. metabolite profiling (NMR and MS) for standardization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The delegation was guided through the scientific complex of CPSBB, where prof. Gechev and Prof. Georgiev presented state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment, incl. GC-MS and the unique for Bulgaria UHPLC-MS system for qualitative and quantitative analysis of samples with organic solvents.

The collaboration with Chinese researchers is of a high priority for CPSBB. In the beginning of August 2024 Prof. Milen Georgiev was an invited speaker at the 8th International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food in Hangzhou, China where he presented the PlantaSYST project and the potential impact of a collaboration with the Zhejiang University in the field of natural products development.