INSTITUTUL DE CERCETARI BIOLOGICE CLUJ FILIALA A INCDSB BUCURESTI

Description

The Institute of Biological Research Cluj (ICB Cluj) is dedicated to research in microorganisms, plant and animal biology. The scientists here combine traditional and modern molecular biology methods in studying biodiversity and developing strategies for a sustainable exploitation of resources. This involves studies of ecology, taxonomy, and phylogeny on cyanobacteria, algae, invertebrates, and higher plants. The “Algology” group focuses on phytoplankton studies, and it takes care of the largest Culture collection of Algae and Cyanobacteria in Eastern Europe (AICB culture collection). New algal strains are isolated from various freshwater bodies across Europe and then included in the collection every year. The equipment necessary for strain isolation (a micromanipulator attached to a Nikon TE2000 U for selecting single cells out of a community), as well as plate streaking, are available and used since many years. The team is experienced with various growth media preparation, as well as with maintaining the cultures for a long time, or performing all kind of experiments, including by using photobioreactors. Most of the group members are also skilled in molecular biology, having worked with many techniques involving DNA, RNA or proteins.

Role In Project

Dr. Bogdan Druga, (m, PhD 2010, Biological Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Commitment of Romania) is a group leader at ICB Cluj. Following his PhD, he has done two postdoc programs focused on phytoplankton/microbial ecology (one at Eawag/Switzerland: 2014- 2016; one at TU Darmstadt/Germany: 2017-2018). His research focuses on understanding how phytoplankton communities adapt/persist in changing environments driven by climate change. He has so far used laboratory scale experiments and molecular biology tools to rigorously test the hypotheses, but his plan is to link these lab tests to field studies, in outdoor mesocosms, in the AQUACOSM-plus project. ISI WoS statistics: 18 papers, 160 citations, h-Index 5.

Project role AQUACOSM-plus: Scientific Coordinator ICBCN, contributor to WP1, WP3, WP4, WP5, WP6, WP8, whereof key inputs to the project is hosting the GA and multi WS event in Oct 2022 (Month 31), and hosting the build-up of the first pond-mesocosm system in Hungary. Both these events will be used for publicity and awareness about these activities in Romania (to specifically fain new users from Romania and neighbouring New EU Members states in close collaboration with several AQUACOSM-plus partners, mainly CISIC and UE. Both these events will be explored to put a strong focus on the needs and opportunities in building such (and other RIs) in Romania, especially in collaboration with the DANUBIUS-RI initiative.