Prof. Dr. Vasil Georgiev 

Vasil Georgiev obtained his PhD at The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (2009). From 2012 to 2016 he conducted postdoctoral research at The Center for Viticulture and Small Fruit Research, Florida A&M University, USA. Vasil returned to Bulgaria continue to work with plant tissue cultures at The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology and also joint to Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Since 2020 he became a Head of the Cell Biosystems Laboratory at the Biotechnology Department of The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and also was elected as Deputy Director of the same Institute. 

Vasil is an expert on bioprocess engineering and secondary metabolites production by plant cells, tissue and organ cultures, functional genomics, metabolite profiling, development and improvement of plant in vitro production platforms. In 2011 he was awarded by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with the “Prof. Marin Drinov” prize for the outstanding research in biological sciences. He has published more than 100 publications, serves as editor in Cosmetics (MDPI), Cogent Food & Agriculture (Taylor & Francis Group), Frontiers in Industrial Microbiology (Frontiers) and has been awarded as with  Publons “Peer Review Award” and  “Sentinels of Science Award” (Clarivate, Web of Science) for his peer-review activities in Agricultural Sciences and Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology.

Presentation:Plant tissue culture technology in the era of cellular agriculture

Plant tissue culture technology has emerged as a powerful tool for the sustainable production of bioactive compounds with remarkable potential in promoting human wellness. By in vitro growing cells or tissue of medicinal plants, this technology offers a unique platform to produce high-value phytochemicals, proteins, and other bioactive molecules free from environmental pollutants, microbial contamination, and with low carbon footprint. In addition to being a source of secondary metabolites, plant cells are now considered a promising ingredient in functional foods and cosmeceuticals. To answer the consumers expectations, active ingredients, produced by plant tissue culture technology, have to meet some basic requirements such as being non-GMO, to avoid artificial growth regulators, to have proven biological efficacy, to be economically accessible, et. 

This presentation will be focused on some of our recent work in the field of cellular agriculture with plant cells.