An official event at the Central Military Club in Sofia marked the launch of BioMedRTC – the Biomedical Research and Technology Centre – a large-scale initiative that brings together Bulgarian scientific expertise, international partnerships and cutting-edge technologies with the aim of advancing biomedical research and innovation in Bulgaria. BioMedRTC is a joint initiative of the “Academician Roumen Tsanev” Institute of Molecular Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMB-BAS), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden and the Institut Curie in Paris. The project aims to create a world-class research environment for conducting interdisciplinary research focusing on rare diseases and cancer. By integrating state-of-the-art technologies from molecular and cellular biology with quantitative approaches from physics and mathematics, scientists at [...]

Scientists from the “Academician Kiril Bratanov” Institute of Biology and Immunology of Reproduction (IBIR-BAS) presented their latest findings in single-cell biology during the “Beyond Gene Expression: Single–Cell Isoform–Resolved Biology” international webinar organised jointly by the biotechnology companies ArgenTag and Oxford Nanopore Technologies. As a guest speaker, the institute’s director Corresponding Member Prof. Dr Soren Hayrabedyan, presented practical experience in the application of long-read sequencing of single cells. The data reveal previously unexplored mechanisms through which tumour cells transition to a more aggressive phenotype and evade the immune response. The results and bioinformatic analysis, developed by the team of Prof. Krassimira Todorova, DSc, show that over half of the key genes undergo a switch in their transcript forms (isoforms) without any change in the overall level [...]

International Microorganism Day – 17 September – was marked in the conference hall of the “Stephan Angeloff” Institute of Microbiology (IMicB) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). This year’s event took place as part of a formal session of the National Seminar on General Virology, Infections and Antimicrobials at the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria and the Seminar of national importance on Infectious Microbiology at IMicB– BAS. The celebration of this day began in 2017 at the suggestion of the Portuguese Society of Microbiology with the support of the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). The aim of the initiative is to promote the history and contribution of microbiology to modern medicine, biotechnology and environmental protection as well as to inspire young people to [...]