The project by the local students provides a basis for the creation of an information database for determining antibiotic therapy. The Bulgarian student team in synthetic biology won a silver medal at the finals of the iGEM world competition, sofiatech.bg reports. In previous years, two bronze and one silver medal were won. The finals of the largest and longest-running international competition in this scientific field were held remotely from November 4 to 14, 2021. The local representatives competed with over 350 teams from around the world, representing both small universities and leading higher education institutions such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The competition gives participants the opportunity to engage in the development of comprehensive scientific projects to solve global problems. The seven-member Bulgarian team includes students from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and the Technical University – Sofia: captain Theodora Gamizova (Master's in "Gene and Cell Engineering"), Paschalina Karadakova (Master's in "Gene and Cell Engineering"), Rosen Ivanov (Master's in "Cell Biology and Pathology"), Jong Park (Master's in "Biochemistry"), Alexander Popov (Bachelor's in "Mechatronics"), Iva Vladimirova (Bachelor's in "Molecular Biology"), and Paula Nikolova (Bachelor's in "Molecular Biology"). The team's research focuses on identifying specific genes that cause the problem of reduced effectiveness of antibiotic treatment. The team focuses on two key approaches to studying antibiotic resistance. The first is based on the discovery of specific genes that cause it, while the second concentrates on the discovery of mutations that alter the normal proteins of bacteria in a way that makes them resistant. The team's engineer, Alexander Popov, developed a system based on computer vision that allows the observation of cell growth rate. The team's preparation was supported by instructors Mikaela Stancheva (Master's in "Genetics and Genomics") and Antonio Stoichkov (Bachelor's in "Philosophy"). Scientific supervisors of the team are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Boris Kirkov from the "Bioinfotech" laboratory at "Sofia Tech Park" and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Slavil Peykov. The team's scientific research was developed with the support of "Sofia Tech Park," which provided equipment and laboratory space. Participation was also supported by Sofia University, TU – Sofia, and the student councils of both higher education institutions, as well as by companies.
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