At the end of 2021, Subcarpathian Innovation Center Sp. z o.o., settled the third call of the Grants for Scientists program. And this time it turned out that a PCI grant will be implemented in the Department of Complex Systems.
Project No. N3_077, entitled "QSAR technique in the selection of proportions of biopromoting bacteria to create an innovative eco-fertilizer", led by Dr. Michal Piętal, will be implemented in the Department of Complex Systems, in the period February-July 2022. The project assumes wide scientific cooperation, both within the framework of PRz (Dr Marta Sochacka-Piętal, Dr inż. Magdalena Szeliga and mgr Małgorzata Semik - Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Chemistry, Rzeszów University of Technology) and outside it (Urszula Jankiewicz, DSc - Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences).
Certain bacteria (e.g. Bacillus subtilis or B.licheniformis), carry out biochemical reactions that improve soil quality and promote plant growth, including crops. The project involves obtaining a prototype of an innovative eco-fertilizer based on a consortium of PGPR bacteria of the Bacillus genus. Selection of the appropriate combination of strains enhancing synergistically the effect of secreted substances (on selected plants and some soil properties) will be carried out using the QSAR bioinformatic technique. In the short time allocated to the project, bioinformatic analyses of bacterial genomes for potentially growth-promoting substances are planned, followed by selection of a set of bacterial strains using bioinformatic tools. At the end of the project, biochemical and chemical analyses will be performed on selected products manufactured by the consortium and a biopreparation will be constructed, ready to be tested on an industrial scale.
What is important, the project assumes the involvement of a Student in the R&D work, which will be selected in a competition to be announced in the first half of January 2022. Students of the following majors will be sought: computer science (II degree), engineering and data analysis (I degree), biotechnology (II degree), but also: mathematics (II degree). The engaged student will be able to use the obtained results for writing his/her diploma thesis, as well as become a co-author of a publication from the so-called Philadelphia List.
Not for the first time in the Department of Complex Systems, will PCI grant be implemented. In the call N1 (2019), the winner of PCI grant program was Dominik Strzałka, PhD , RUT professor (link to project) and Marek Bolanowski, PhD, RUT professor, while in the call N2 (2020), the winner was Michał Wroński, MSc.
