Most of the members of the program team are involved in the teaching process in different study programs at the Biotechnical Faculty (BF). Faculty and University award their employees each year. 1) In 2015 prof. dr. Smole Možina was awarded the University of Ljubljana golden plaque for her scientific, professional and teaching achievements. 2) In 2016 Prof. dr. Hrvoje Petković received recognition for his teaching, research and professional work at the Biotechnical Faculty. 3) In 2015/2016 three members of the program were elected by students as the best teachers: prof. dr. David Stopar for Microbiology study program, prof. dr. Polona Jamnik for Food Science program and dr. Tjaša Danevčič for Biotechnology study program, in 2016 prof. dr. Petković was elected as the best teacher at the Biotechnology program. 4) The Presern awards for master thesis; 3 faculty awards (Šimunović and Saje, mentor prof. dr. Smole Možina; Strojnik mentor prof. dr. Jeršek) and one University award (Sretenović, mentor prof. dr. Stopar). 5) The publication by Lešnik et al., Angewandte Chemie; A'', 2015; (Impact Factor: 11.261, leading author Prof. dr. Petković) was recognized for its quality by the ARRS and chosen as the best »Excellent in science« in the field of biotechnology. 6) Our publications were recognized as the most influential by University of Ljubljana: in 2014/15 Lešnik et al.; and then next year 2015/16 the publication Štefanič, Kraigher et al., PNAS, A'', 2015 (Impact factor 9.6, leading author prof. dr. I. Mandić-Mulec). The high number of awards and recognitions indicate that the members of the program team are very committed to educational work and to transfer of knowledge to younger generations and that they are at the same time investing an immense energy also into developing the top science.
E.01 National awards
In the field of the work of programme group or its content in the field of food quality and safety under the supervision or co-supervision of prof. Sonja Smole Možina in l. 15/16 PhD students finished four doctoral dissertations. Jasna Kovač studies epidemiology of campylobacteriosis in humans and mechanism of action of natural antimicrobial substances, inhibitors of efflux pumps in bacteria and resistance modulators of campylobacters; she received an award for the most successful PhD student at BF Biosciences for her work in 2015. Katja Bezek and Maja Šikić Pogačar then continued research on campylobacter resistance due to the adhesion and biofilm formation on abiotic (contact surfaces) and/ or biological (cell lines) and the efficiency of natural antimicrobial substances against these resistant forms of pathogenic bacteria C. jejuni. Saša Piskernik confirmed antimicrobial activity of natural plant extracts against infectious agents or food deterioration. In that period from those content 6 original scientific papers were published. All four doctors successfully continue their research careers (three in Slovenia, one in the US).
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
In the scope of its R&D pipeline Acies Bio is intensively developing a treatment for a rare childhood onset neurodegenerative disease – panothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN). Based on promising results of preclinical testing, particularly on the proprietary phosphopantetheine derivative CAB1803, an application for granting the orphan status was filed. Based on extensive documentation containing key data on epidemiology and pathophysiology of PKAN, for which no treatment is currently available, and available data on efficacy and safety of CAB1803 of cell-line and animal models of PKAN, orphan status was granted by EMA and the European Commission for CAB1803 for treatment of PKAN. Granting of orphan status confirms the quality of our research by and independent reference institution and significantly facilitates further drug development steps.
F.06 Development of a new product
In the time of reporting period members of program group were 10 times invited lecturers at international scientific conferences and renowned universities abroad; they gave 16 invited lectures. Among them we would like to expose: 1) Invited lecture of prof. dr. Mandić Mulec “Competition drives kin discrimination in Bacillus subtilis”, organized this year by ASM in Washington, which is a great success. COBISS.SI-ID 4762488 2) Lecture of prof. dr. Mandic Mulec at Harvard on “Ecology of social interactions” in the frame of Microbial Sciences Initiative, MSI Special seminar, Cambridge (MA), ZDA, August 3rd 2016. COBISS.SI-ID 4692856 3) Invited Lecture of prof.dr. Mandic Mulec “Kin discrimination in Bacillus subtilis” at Internal Workshop of the CRC 987, Microbial Diversity in Environmental Signal Response, Marburg, 2016. COBISS.SI-ID 4734840 4) Invited lecture of prof. dr. Petković “Diversity and sources of building blocks in the biosynthesis of industrially important secondary metabolites: why is this an important issue for the pharmaceutical industry?" at international symposium Power of Microbes in Industry and Environment, Croatia, 2016. COBISS.SI-ID 4733048 5) Invited lecture of prof. dr. Smole Možina “Molecular microbiology as a tool for understanding and controlling the problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria in food production - case Campylobacter” at symposium Dani mikrobiologa Srbije, 2016. COBISS.SI-ID 4657784 6) prof. dr. Stopar was invited to execute summer school with the title” Biofilms: from molecular anatomy to supramolecular systems”, Nijmegen, 1-5 August 2016 at Radboud University in 2016. COBISS.SI-ID 4696696
B.04 Guest lecture
Members of P4-116 have been/are active partners of 6 EU financed projects and 7 projects financed from non-ARRS sources. We would expose EU 7FP project Trafoon: »Traditional Food Network to improve the transfer of knowledge for innovation« (coordinator prof. dr. Sonja Smole Možina). The project has successfully linked institutions in primary production, processing, packaging, labeling, certifying as well as for quality and safety assurance in the food chain for efficient knowledge transfer towards innovation in traditional food sector. The aim was the establisment of network of transfering the knowledge collected in basic and applied research to the level of development of new products, procedures or services in production and marketing of traditional foods – where meeting of tradition and innovation presents a challenge. In six WGs in years 2015/16 in total 55 more or less international training workshops have been organised for mainly SME producers of traditional foods, on their previously identified needs. We participated in organization of seven such workshops in the field of food quality and safety in Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic and Serbia. We would also like to point out EU project H2020 SME Instrument II- WHEY2VALUE Valorising waste whey into high-value products (grant no. 697958) (project leaders dr. Štefan Fujs, dr. Gregor Kosec, prof. dr. Hrvoje Petković), which brought 1 8 million of EU investments and we have just obtained the EU project H2020 BIOTEC - TOPCAPI (start financing January 2017) Thoroughly optimized production chassis for advanced pharmaceutical ingredients (grant no. 720793) (project leader prof. dr. Hrvoje Petković). TOPCAPI will exploit the power of industrial actinomycetes as microbial cell factories to produce high value compounds. Project Ljubljanica river Experience and exhibition site is a national project funded by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 and the EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014. It is a collaborative project undertaken jointly by the Municipality of Vrhnika, Ljubljana City Museum, Institute for Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Slovenia and Faculty of arts and Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana. The project attracted significant public attention through the exhibition “My Ljubljanica river” in Vrhnika, where the story of the oldest surviving wooden wheel in the world, 5200 years old, and the longest log-boat in Europe from the Roman times that were hidden in sediments of Ljubljanica river has been set through this project. This is an achievement of national significance even the Prime Minister Dr. Miro Cerar and the Minister of Culture Mr. Tone Peršak honored with their presence the opening ceremony. Members of the program group (prof. dr. Stopar and dr. Danevčič) were strongly involved in the project by exploring the environmental and microbial factors important for the preservation of the log-boat and its cleaning and conservation in addition to regular monitoring of the physico-chemical and microbiological parameters in the depository of the archaeological waterlogged wood located in the abandoned clay pits. We also monitored the microbial communities associated with a Roman ship in the Ljubljanica river, validated and established a new method for determining the polymerization of melamine resins that is now used for the preservation of waterlogged archaeological wooden objects. The project has received lots of media attention through television, radio, newspapers and press conferences. This is an example of good practice, where in a very short period of time (a year and a half) different experts archaeologists, conservators, curators, civil engineers, hydrologists, microbiologists and municipal administration unified with one task in mind and successfully carried out the project, directly serving the general public and the taxpayers.
D.01 Chairing over/coordinating (international and national) projects
COBISS.SI-ID: 1537590468