Team news
Looking Back on 2025: BRT Newsletter
With 2025 now behind us, the BioResources & Technology (BRT) Division reflects on a year defined by collaboration, innovation, and global engagement. From new research outputs and international projects to academic milestones and community-building events, 2025 marked a period of steady progress across BRT’s research, education, and outreach activities.
BRT Researcher Appointed Guest Editor for Special Issue on Plant-Microbe Interactions
BRT postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sandipan Banerjee has been appointed as the Invited Sole Guest Editor of a new Special Issue in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
The Special Issue titled “Plant–Microbe Interactions in Diverse Ecosystems: Symbionts in Stress Management”, explores how plants across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems form complex symbiotic relationships with microorganisms, including endophytes, mycorrhizal fungi, rhizospheric microbes, and even gut-associated microbiota. These interactions play a crucial role in helping plants navigate environmental challenges.
Microbial recruitment is increasingly recognized as essential for mitigating both abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and pollution, and biotic stresses like phytopathogens, all of which threaten global food security. Acting as “biological buffers,” these symbionts regulate plant physiological and molecular responses through dynamic, bidirectional interactions.
Paper Published! Digestate from small-scale biogas plants in central Vietnam produced under mesophilic conditions: friend or foe for local farmers?
Researchers from the BioResources and Technology Division (BRT), including BRT Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík, Dr. Viktoriia Chubur, Dr. Yelizaveta Chernysh, Marek Jelínek, Van Hau Duong, and Prof. Dr. Jan Banout, recently published an article in Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining.
Biogas technology is widely used in rural Vietnam as a solution for organic waste management and energy production. Anaerobic digestion allows for the treatment of animal manure and other organic waste, producing biogas as a main output and digestate as a by-product that can be applied as fertilizer. In this study, digestate samples were collected from 85 farms located in Thua Thien Hue province and analyzed for microbial contamination and elemental composition. The research examined the presence of pathogens after anaerobic digestion under mesophilic conditions, as well as the potential role of antibiotic resistance in microbial populations.
BRT at the CEE2ACT Final Conference: Reflections on the Future of Bioeconomy
Recently, BRT Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Adam Hruška travelled to Hungary for the CEE2ACT Project Final Conference.
The conference, titled “The Future of the Bioeconomy in Central and Eastern Europe” was organised by Geonardo Ltd., held in Budapest, at the MagNet Community House. The aim of the event was to bring together policymakers, researchers, and industry players to shape the sustainable future of the region. The CEE2ACT project was working to empower Central and Eastern European countries to develop circular bioeconomy strategies. The project developed circular bioeconomy strategies and action plans through knowledge transfer and innovative governance models to achieve better-informed decision-making, societal engagement, and innovation.
Enjoy reading Adam’s first-hand account of the meeting!
Beyond Keywords: Improving How We Explore Scientific Knowledge
Accessing scientific knowledge efficiently remains a major challenge as research output continues to grow. In this blog, BRT PhD student Antoine Bercy from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU) introduces a scientific database he developed as part of his doctoral research. Designed to improve how literature can be explored and filtered, the database demonstrates how structured data, clearer classification, and interactive tools can help researchers navigate complex scientific information more effectively, particularly in the field of anaerobic digestion and biogas technologies. Enjoy reading!
Recently, I had the honour to represent the Department of Food and BioResource Technology at Faculty Day at the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (FTZ) at the Czech Unversity of Life Sciences, Prague (CZU). The presentation outlined the progress of my PhD thesis, which focuses on modernising scientific publication, particularly in the areas of data collection and sharing, under the title: “Implementation of an Innovative Approach for Data Search and Reporting with Special Focus on Anaerobic Digestion.?s”
Biogas and the SDGs: Synergies, Trade-offs, and Pathways to Sustainable Impact
BRT PhD student and junior researcher Phiona Jackline Mukisa recently wrote a think piece about the role of biogas in the future of clean energy. Enjoy reading!
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Biogas and the SDGs. Where Do the Connections Begin and End?
Biogas is more than clean energy; it’s a quiet revolution. In rural Uganda, small-scale digesters turn waste into fuel, but their impact stretches far beyond the kitchen. They reshape health, agriculture, gender equality, climate resilience, and income generation, showing how one simple technology can spark progress across multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
