Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing fields of science: pharmaceuticals, medicine, agriculture, food and the environment are all using such techniques. The University of Debrecen launched the biotechnology programme in 1987, and it has been available as a stand-alone BSc course for three years.
- Biotechnology is present in all aspects of our lives, and plays a major role in teaching and research at university. It is a multidisciplinary field because it covers everything from biochemistry to microbiology and manufacturing technology. We find that young people are interested in this field, and we try to make it more understandable and accessible to them in different ways. For first-year students, the easiest way to introduce biotechnology is through food, to make it interesting and tangible, so my colleague Alexandra Imre and I came up with the idea of isolating microbes from beers and looking for ways to grow them. Beers use a wide variety of yeasts that produce different flavour compounds, and we investigated the variable regions in their genomes. Based on DNA analysis, we were actually able to detect a very close relationship between many brewer's yeasts, even between yeasts that are supposed to come from different types of beer and whose producers are proud to use their own yeast," said Valter Péter Pfliegler, Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Microbiology, Institute of Biotechnology, DE TTK.
Valter Pfliegler explained that he had learned about the journal microPublication Biology at a conference, where he had previously published an article about Washington State University, where students were involved in a scientific research project during an internship, and the students were included as group authors in the official publication.
- That's where the idea came from, and we implemented it. We selected four brewer's yeasts, performed a complete genome analysis on them, and wrote a scientific paper from the results, which was recently published in microPublication Biology. I have found that it is motivating for students to do this kind of research and to have the opportunity to publish the results in the form of an article. In addition, they gain a better understanding of the theoretical material due to the practical knowledge they acquire. With the students of the next year group, we compared honey yeasts phenotypically and assessed what substances they produce. With this study, we are now aiming for a larger journal, with plans to involve the students in a new study every year," said the lecturer.
The biotechnology bachelor's degree course, which is very popular among Hungarians and foreigners alike, was launched three years ago under the direction of István Pócsi, head of the Department of Molecular Biotechnology and Microbiology at the UD Faculty of Science and Technology; students of the first year will receive their degrees this year.
The published article is available here: https://micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-001381
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