“To support education and research activities, the University of Debrecen Faculty of Health Sciences leaders and the “One Health” Institute opened a molecular microbiology laboratory at the Szolnok Campus of the University of Debrecen. The opening of the new unit will enable professionals working on campus to carry out research requiring laboratory capacity, and students will gain laboratory experience while preparing their theses,” unideb.hu reported.
In antibiotic resistance and food safety, the UD Faculty of Health Sciences in Szolnok has trained dieticians, public health inspectors, and students, and they are now gaining valuable results. In addition, the unit is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for nucleic acid measurement. It will also be used for scientific activities related to pathogen and gene detection through microbiological methods, bacterial cultivation, and antibiotic resistance.
Director of the “One Health” Institute of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Debrecen, Gábor Kardos, emphasised that specialists teaching at the UD Szolnok Campus can now perform laboratory work on-site.
“Thanks to the laboratory, experts will no longer have to travel to Debrecen to carry out this research but will be able to do it locally.”
“We also want to help teachers to become researchers, as this is the key to advancing their teaching careers. We also want students interested in science and the laboratory environment to have this kind of experience for their thesis or dissertation,” the Director said.
Marianna Móré, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Debrecen, pointed out that they would like to organise scientific activities in the research unit in Szolnok, focusing on local conditions; for example, they will also carry out studies on local wastewater and the water of the Tisza.
“It is vital that teachers and students in all the faculty’s training places have the opportunity to get involved in scientific research.”
“So far, we have been working to create the ideal conditions for education in Szolnok and Nyíregyháza, and now we are taking this to a new level. The laboratory work can be done in close cooperation with the “One Health” Institute, but also separately, to produce research results that can be fed back into the food industry. Microbiology is about everyday life, with water, environmental and food safety playing a key role. This development is a niche, as there is no research on antibiotic resistance in this region and very few laboratories for microbiology research in the country,” the Head of the Faculty said.
The lab aims to produce studies and publications based on the research results generated here, thus enabling the faculty specialists working at the Szolnok Campus to participate in international scientific work.
Source and photo credit: dehir.hu