Students from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Poland visited CPSBB

The Agricultural University-Plovdiv and CPSBB organized a visit to the scientific complex of the Center of Erasmus+ bachelor’s students from the Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture of the West Pomeranian University in Technology in Szczecin, Poland. The students are in their last year of education in Viticulture and Winemaking.

Dr. Eng. Alicja Wieteska Georgieva, Agronomist at CPSBB and graduate of Agriculture at the same university, together with the molecular biologists – Dr. Nikola Staykov, Dr. Martina Savova, and Mihail Angelov, welcomed the guests and guided them to the scientific facilities within the complex.

 Dr. Nikola Staykov presented to the guests some of the laboratories, specialized rooms, and growth chambers. He showcased some basic rules and guidelines for the quantitative PCR (qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR) technologies and analyses, conducted at CPSBB. He also introduced the undergraduates to the bioreactors, which provide a controlled, sterile environment for cultivating plant cells and tissues in liquid culture. This equipment enables researchers to produce and isolate valuable plant-derived metabolites – such as anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, or nutraceutical compounds – for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industry applications. 

Dr. Staykov also showed some experiments with the resurrection plant Haberlea rhodopensis, conducted in specialized in vitro rooms at the Center. CPSBB has developed a utility model for in vitro propagation of the plant, as it is protected by law from harvesting in its natural habitat. The developed utility model enables the plants to produce in laboratory conditions higher levels of the secondary plant metabolite myconoside, which is a valuable ingredient in cosmetic products, used for sun protection and against photoaging. He also showed them the four high-tech growth chambers of CPSBB, equipped to maintain specific climatic conditions with high accuracy, which is required for the exact reproducibility of each scientific experiment, connected with plant treatments under certain abiotic stress conditions.

The PhD student Mihail Angelov introduced the guests to the unique for Bulgaria and the region UPLC-MS (liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry) system for analysis of plant secondary metabolites. ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) for analysis of metals and metalloids in plant samples) was also presented, together with some of the main goals of the scientific work with such a type of technological equipment.

Dr. Martina Savova demonstrated fluorescent microscopy of the model organism C.elegans on the confocal microscope. She explained in brief to the students the main goals of the research, conducted by the Plant Cell Biotechnology department at CPSBB, in the domains of longevity, anti-obesity, and photoaging. 

Dr. Alicja Georgieva presented the greenhouse facilities at CPSBB and some of the current scientific experiments conducted within large-scale international and national research projects. She showed the students more than 150 tomato and pepper cultivars, which are a main focus in the NatGenCrop project for improving nutritional properties and stress tolerance in peppers and tomatoes, as well as some of the greenhouse work within the HealthyDiets4Africa project, and the system for smart irrigation within the AgroDigiRise project. 

Some tomato cultivars, developed in a partnership between CPSBB and Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute, were also demonstrated to the students.