Vella Nikolova
EDUCATION
College / University
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria
Highest Degree
Bachelor of Science
Major Subjects
Molecular Biology
Country
Bulgaria
Lab Experience
Arabidopsis seed sterilization and growing of Arabidopsis plants; analysis of Arabidopsis salt stress response; zebularine treatment of Arabidopsis plants; histochemical GUS staining; total RNA purification; DNase treatment; cDNA synthesis; semi-quantitative RT-PCR; agarose gel electrophoresis; ImageJ analysis; SDS-PAGE; DNA Gyrase supercoiling assay; DNA Gyrase cleavage assay; microbiological techniques; cloning techniques; protein purification; plasmid DNA isolation; E. coli competent cells preparation; transformation of Agrobacterium; floral dip transformation of Arabidopsis plants.
Projects / Research
- 10/2015 – 07/2018: “Aberrant DNA methylation patterns affect salinity stress responses of Arabidopsis thaliana“, Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
- 10/2016 – 04/2018: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University
- 07/2017 – 08/2017: “The role of Exonuclease VII from E. coli in processing DNA Gyrase-DNA complexes", International Undergraduate Summer School 2017 at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
Scholarships / Awards
| 2018 – 2019: | Stipend by the International Max Planck Research School |
| 05/2018: | Student of the year 2017/2018 award: 3rd place in category Natural Sciences and Biotechnology |
| 03/2015 – 07/2018: | European and national stipends for excellent grades at Sofia University |
| 07/2017 – 08/2017: | Grant from Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine |