German

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGY

Nacionalni institut za Biologijo
Vecna pot 111, p.p. 141
SI-1001 Ljubljana
Slovenia

Tel. + 386 61 123 33 88
Fax + 386 61 123 50 38

E-mail

The National Institute of Biology was founded in 1961 by the University of Ljubljana to undertake basic and applied research in biological sciences. Today, the Institute is a public non-profit organization for basic and applied research and is financed by the government. Individual projects are financed largely by peer-reviewed grant funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology (70-80%), while the remaining research and development activities are financed by various agencies, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture, large and small companies, and other institutions. At present, around forty-five of the total of seventy-seven employees of the Institute are directly engaged in research. Many researchers are professors and instructors at the University of Ljubljana and at the Faculty for Environmental Studies in Nova Gorica, and elsewhere. The director of the National Institute of Biology is Dr. Tamara Lah.

The major activities of the Institute include basic research in:

• the biology of unicellular organisms, animal and plant physiology, and the molecular biology of diseases;

• monitoring environmental pollution, particularly in freshwater environments;

• marine biology and oceanography with particular emphasis on sea pollution;

and applied research and development in the fields of:

• environmental biotechnology,

• pollution monitoring and protection, and

• plant biotechnology.

The major research areas have very strong potential for application and for the transfer of technology carried out in six research laboratories located in the Biological Center in Ljubljana:

• Ecosystem Research and Monitoring (Head: Dr. Anton Brancelj),

• Ecotoxicolgy and Ecotoxiconolgy (Head: Dr. Bojan Sedmak)

• Cytogenetics (Head: Dr. Milan Lovka)

• Neurobiology of Insects (Head: Dr. Andrej Cokl)

• Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (Head: Dr. Tamara Lah)

• Plant Physiology (Head: Dr. Jana Zel),

There are also laboratories at the Marine Biological Station (Head Dr. Alenka Malej) in Piran on the Slovene coast. Two technological centers, Center Planta (Head: Dr. Maja Ravnikar) at the Laboratory of Plant Physiology and the Instrumental Center (Head: Dr. Vlado Malacic) at the Marine Biological Station in Piran, are focused on applied research projects.

In future, we plan to expand:

• the field of molecular biology to use new methodologies to study plant, animal, and human genes in addition to the morphological, taxonomic, and molecular biology methods. This approach has the potential for developing applications to study pollution as well as diagnostic methods and therapeutic application for various diseases in veterinary science and medicine.

• the program for the dissemination of information on community radio and television in the framework of established links and existing programs. We will also expand in the field of European Union standardization of monitoring agriculture products (plants), diagnostic protocols in veterinary science and medicine, marine biological and general water pollution monitoring, ecology, toxicology, and toxiconology.

E-mails: Mail.Nib@Uni-Lj.si

Neuro.nib@Uni-Lj.si
Andrej.Blejec@Uni-Lj.si
Tamara.Lah@Uni-Lj.si
Maja.Ravnikar@Uni-Lj.si
Vlado.Malacic@Uni-Lj.si
Jana.Zel@Uni-Lj.si
Bojan.Sedmak@Uni-Lj.si
Barbara.Cernac@Uni-Lj.si
Anton.Brancelj@Uni-Lj.si
Andrej.Cokl@Uni-Lj.si
malej@morje.msp.nib.si