Birth date:

1 June 1967

Academic degree:

Associate Professor

In the lab since:

1999

Education:

1987-1992 – Student of Biotechnology at the “St. Kliment Ochridsky” University of Sofia

1992 – MS degree in gene and cell engineering with the thesis “Analysis of the Poliovirus genome using recombinant DNA techniques”

1993 – International Course “Techniques in Molecular Biology”, Institute “Pasteur, Bucharest, Romania

1995 – The Fourth Central European Summer School of Immunology”, Prague, Czech Republic

2000 – Course “Self tolerance and self recognition”, Sinaia, Romania

2002 – Defended Ph.D. thesis “Engineered and genetically engineered chimeric molecules as antigens”

Official positions:

2007-present – Personal Investigator at the Laboratory of Experimental Immunology in the Institute of Microbiology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

2014-present – Co-president of the Department of Immunology at the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, official EFIS affiliated organization in Bulgaria

Research experience:

1992-1998: Staff Scientist, Research and Development Group, Department for Bacterial Vaccines, National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia.

1.Improvement of semisynthetic media for cultivation of C.diphtheria in a fermentor.

2.Isolation, purification and standardization of diphtheria toxins and toxoids, obtained after cultivation using different types of media.

3. Investigation of theimmunochemical,chemical and physical methods for the control and analysis of polybacterial immunostimulators.

1996-1997: Visiting scientist, Laboratory “Experimental immunology”, University of Utrecht, Holland , Copernicus Contract CIPA CT 94-0152 “Genetically Engineered Vaccines”

1999-up to now: Research fellow in the Department of Immunology, The Stefan Angelov Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria – “Isolation and characterization of natural autoantibodies in healthy individuals” and “Engineered and genetically engineered chimeric molecules as antigens”

03-06.2003: Visiting scientist, Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, “Reestablishing tolerance to DNA in murine models of lupus”

2004 – 2010: Visiting scientist, Department of Immunology, Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary, “Human models of lupus” and“DNA vaccine therapy”

2009: Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, BAS.

2011: Visiting Professor – University of Nis, Serbia.

Primary research interests:

Autoimmune disorders: SLE

Protein and genetic engineering: Chimeric molecules and constructs

New vaccine design: adjuvants and DNA-vaccines

Animal models of human diseases

Secondary interests:

Allergies; cell signaling; natural antibodies

Hobbies:

Art photography, poetry, football

e-mail

tchorban@microbio.bas.bg