For the first time a Bulgarian student team participated in the iGEM prestigious global contest in synthetic biology, held in Boston, the USA. The team had been selected among 300 others from across the world. 10 students from Sofia University, the Technical one and also from Plovdiv University took part in the project. The Sofia Tech Park Company supported the students by providing them with its specialized laboratory and equipment. Boris Kirov was the head of the team. One of the participants, Ilka Tsvetkova, a 4^th year student at the Biology Department with the Sofia University presented for us the project’s topic:

“Our project is related to the yoghurt Lactobacillus bulgaricus bacteria. The idea is to improve its qualities and to make it suitable for freezing and defrost without being harmed. Practice reveals extreme and stressful conditions for the survival of the lactic acid bacteria at the lyophilization or freeze-drying process that produces yeast. That all results in huge losses for the companies that work with them. That is why we used tardigrades – water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals /the word deriving from the Latin tardigradus, or slow-walking/. The animal lives and adapts within extreme conditions, at an altitude of up to 6,000 m, down to 4,000 m under the sea and also in radiation. Whenever necessary they can go into a state of anabiosis, thus living for up to two years. Some kinds of tardigrades can have offspring even after 30 years spent in hibernation. It is established that the synthesis of bioprotectants in the form of proteins plays a major role for their survival. For instance the CAHS1, SAHS2 proteins and others. We took 4 proteins and successfully input those into the bacteria after a series of tries and tests. Then we established that the test had had a positive impact on the bacteria,” Ilka says.

The Bulgarian students remained really impressed with the other projects that their foreign colleagues had worked on for years, putting a lot of labor and efforts into the achieving of their goals. At the same time the jury, which also had representatives of European countries, was strongly impressed by the results of the Bulgarian team. The latter faced the firm support of the Bulgarian community in Boston which provided the supplies necessary /that would take months to the Bulgarian companies to cope with/. The team was accommodated into a big house and was given lots of care. We need to mention here that the presentation of the team was doomed till the last moment when a donation campaign and the sale of branded T-shirts saved the funding necessary for registration. Ilka reports on the result of the efforts put:

“The Bulgarian team returned with a bronze medal. After so many years spent on one spot we managed to bring glory to Bulgaria. We served as inspiration to many students who want to become a part of the team. My message to them is: don’t give up, no matter any negative reviews that are possible along the way. Whenever one is determined to achieve something, he or she can and will find support, as long as it is sought.”

The project of the young scientists is conceptual and innovative and the results will have their wide practical implementation in different fields, opening new gates in the world of biotechnologies.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev