More than 100 students from University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski” (Faculty of Biology) visited CPSBB and held their practical training in Plant Physiology. The undergraduates are in their third and fourth year of education for Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Biology and Chemistry, Biology and English, Ecology and Molecular Biology.

Prof. Dr. Tsanko Gechev welcomed the students and presented the scientific departments and research activities of CPSBB. He pointed out the main advantages of the state of the art equipment of the Center and highlighted one of the main research topics of the Center – the resurrection plant Haberlea rhodopensis. He also presented some of the current scientific projects on which CPSBB works with international partners (e.g. CropPrime, NatGenCrop, Booster, RESIST) and conducted a live demonstration with a conductometer for detecting electrolyte conductivity and stress levels in plants.

“CPSBB welcomes motivated and ambitious students to complete doctoral degree in biotechnologies and develop their scientific career here, as part of our research team”, outlined Prof. Gechev.

Dr. Maria Benina explained in detail how the Mass Spectrometry Systems in CPSBB’s labs work for metabolite, metal, and target analysis. Moreover, she guided the students through the scientific complex of the Center and showed them the technology in real lab conditions.

Dr. Alicja Wieteska, Dr. Nikola Staykov and the laboratory expert of CPSBB Ludmil Tonchev also participated in the event. They organized tour visits through the whole scientific campus and greenhouses in order to demonstrate to the students the first Bulgarian Center of Excellence in Plant Biology and Biotechnology – CPSBB.