The topic of the XX Biotechnology Summer School is model organisms.
A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena. They are widely used for all kind of biotechnology investigation in order to simplify the mechanism of its action. It is used to accelerate the research, allow avoiding ethical problems, speed up the research and make it easy. Studying model organisms can be informative, but care must be taken when results are extrapolating from one organism to another.
The organisms chosen as the model organisms usually are harmless to the investigators, easily to grown in laboratory conditions and possess relatively short life cycle.
We have chosen four different model organisms belonging to different kingdom of life: fungi (Ustilago maydis), plants (Arabidopsis thaliana) and animals: fish (Danio rerio), mouse (Mus musculus).
The program of Summer School will also consider some issue connected with the GMO organism, its legislation and social acceptance of biotechnology.
Lectures and workshops will be led by leading European scientists from the field.
The official language of BSS is English.