PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, changed our understanding of viruses by allowing us to detect many that were previously difficult to identify.

If you’re wondering why PCR sounds familiar, it’s probably because it was widely used during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are different types of PCR, such as classical PCR, real-time PCR, and digital PCR. They differ in some ways, but the basic principle is similar: they target a specific part of the viral genetic material (DNA or RNA, depending on the virus) and amplify it exponentially with each cycle.

This means that after the first cycle, we have two copies; after the second, four; then eight, and so on (you get the gist!). We usually run up to 40 cycles, each containing several steps that occur at specific temperatures.

By the end, we have enough amplified genetic material to detect it, using different methods depending on the type of PCR.

With classical PCR, we mix the PCR product with a dye that binds to DNA and allows us to visualise it, for instance, under UV light.

The mixture is added to a gel, and an electric current is applied. DNA is negatively charged, so it moves towards the positive electrode.

Larger DNA fragments move more slowly through the gel, allowing us to distinguish fragments of different sizes as bands.

In the picture below, you can see PCR products from one of the experiments we conducted at NIB. The amount of detectable PCR product decreases as the hydrogen peroxide concentration increases.

 

October, 2026

📣 Publication alert

Everybody knows that there is no life without water.

But not everybody knows that the availability of clean and safe water is in sharp decline.

So it is crucial that we properly treat it.

This is why we have developed SuperPlasma technology, to help deal with this important global issue.

In our latest study, we evaluated the effect of SuperPlasma on the inactivation of viruses in water. We focused on viruses because they are very problematic waterborne pathogens.

What kind of water did we treat?

Different ones – from demineralized to tap and wastewater.

Why? Because today we use different sources of water, including treated wastewater, for different purposes, from recreation to irrigation and drinking. And the efficiency of their treatment is highly dependent on their properties.

To make the work as applicable and useful as possible, besides MS2, we also tested the inactivation of one of the most important human waterborne viruses – human norovirus.

And to make it even more interesting, we also evaluated the mechanisms of inactivation.

What did we show? That SuperPlasma can inactivate both viruses in different types of water, but that the efficiency depends on water properties and the type of virus.

Check more here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957582026012863.

I am especially proud of this publication, as this is my first one as the leading author 😊 .

It was also the first Slovenian-Spanish collaboration bringing together three institutes: National Institute of Biology, IJS and IATA.

Thank you all, and congrats David Dobnik, Tamara Košir, Gregor Primc, Walter Randazzo, Beatriz Alcaine Bellido, Rok, Špela 🎉.

October, 2026

  This is Ana.

Last week, Ana defended her Master’s thesis (and very successfully, if I may add!), officially becoming a Mag. of Biotechnology.

She evaluated the effect of different technologies, including SuperPlasma, on the inactivation of bacteriophage MS2 in water at NIB.

Ana was a fantastic student.

From start to finish.

The kind of student who makes being a mentor easy-peasy.

Ana, thank you for everything.

It really was a pleasure being your mentor, and I can’t wait to see what you accomplish ❤️

September, 2026

  Viruses don’t respect disciplinary boundaries, so neither should the solutions.

That was one of the recurring themes at the 9th International Society for Food and Environmental Virology Conference: we need more connection and collaboration.
When it comes to viruses, appropriate prevention is always the best way to go.

But things don’t always go according to plan.

So we need contingency plans.
Good detection methods.
And good inactivation methods.

During the conference, there was a lot of work presented on all of these topics.

This also included three presentations from NIB, including mine, on our work comparing SuperPlasma with other water decontamination approaches for the inactivation of viruses in water.

It was great seeing how virology is developing in different areas – and seeing you all!

Hopefully, see you all again in two years. It will be awesome 😏!

September, 2026

  📢 Publication alert!

Respiratory viruses such as influenza or SARS-CoV-2 are usually transmitted through aerosols.

But they can also be transmitted via surfaces, including personal protective equipment such as masks.

So, if we want to prevent transmission, why not make those surfaces antiviral?

In our article, interdisciplinary teams including the ones from National Institute of Biology and University of Maribor, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, have joined forces to work on this very interdisciplinary scientific area.

We evaluate how natural substances, including chitosan and tannic acid, interact with these viruses and show their potential as antiviral coatings.

I am so proud of Saša Kaloper – the first PhD student whom I am officially co-mentoring – for doing all of this hard work and preparing such a complex manuscript, under the great supervision and leadership of her mentor Olivija Plohl, PhD.

They did a fantastic job, and I didn’t expect anything less from such dedicated and courageous scientists.

And of course, congratulations to all the co-authors for their contributions.

To many more!

September, 2026

  Can you find a mistake? 

I still remember defending my Master’s thesis and one of the professors saying something along the lines of:

“As scientists, we have an obligation to do our work according to a certain code.”

And it is true. If we want science to make this world a better place, we have to lead by example and do our work – and present our results – accordingly.

But look, we’ve all been there.

Finding something that could be improved after we’ve already published a manuscript. A typo. Something we didn’t explain properly. Something that was too ambiguous. It happens – especially after you’ve changed text so many times that things get overlooked.

An honest mistake can happen to anyone.

However, some things cannot simply be excused as an honest mistake.

Can you spot what it is (it will become even clearer once I tell you what the article was about)?

September, 2026

  When it’s carnival time (or, as we call it, maškare) but you still need some liquid nitrogen

And always remember: safety first!

Have a great weekend!

Thank you, Katja Fric, for making the video – it has been a great throwback 😊

August, 2026

 Do you know what viral factories are?

They are literally places that produce new viruses.

What may be less obvious is where those factories are – inside the cell.

Viruses are parasitic microorganisms, as they need their host to make new viruses.

And to do so, they first need to get into the right cells.
For instance, viruses like norovirus, which cause diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal issues, have to get to our gut, while viruses such as flu target cells of our respiratory tract, like those in the nose, throat or lungs.

Once inside the right cell, viruses take over the cell’s machinery and use it to produce new viruses.

Basically, they use the building blocks already inside the cell – materials the cell would otherwise use for itself – to make new viruses.
(Probably a very good example of the “work smarter, not harder” theory)

And all of this is happening in…
(you have probably guessed it…)
Viral factories.

They do not all look the same, nor are they found in the same part of the cell, as this depends heavily on the virus. But they all have the same function: to make more viruses.

Since making more viruses often ends in disease, it is important to prevent this.
And the best way to do it is to stopping viruses from ever reaching us by successfully inactivating them (something we do at NIB).

Because even though viral factories probably have the lowest CO₂ emissions of any factory, they can still cause a huge amount of damage.

 

​

August, 2026

Did you know that when you swim in natural waters, you never swim alone? 

Even the clearest waters are never empty.

They are bursting with microbial life.

For instance, there are millions of viruses in every milliliter of seawater (of course, in addition to everything else).

Are you thinking now:
“Oh, I don’t want to be swimming with viruses. Aren’t they the bad guys?”

Most of them are not only harmless to us, but are actually crucial for life in aquatic ecosystems. By infecting microorganisms, they release nutrients that can then be used by other (micro)organisms.

(In fact, they are responsible for the release of gigatonnes of nutrients every year-equivalent to the weight of around 23,000 Great Pyramids of Giza 😮)

However, we also need to be cautious.

Because of different human activities, more pathogenic viruses are finding their way into our waters.

This is why it is important to understand which viruses are present in different water environments (something we do at National Institute of Biology). And if we find problematic ones, we use our environmentally friendly technologies to inactivate them.

So, should you stop swimming because of viruses?

It depends on the type and quality of the water (I mean if it smells or looks bad, then yes)

But if you’re about to jump into something like the Mediterranean Sea or a beautiful Slovenian river, go for it.

At least, that’s what I would do😊

 

​

August, 2026

Who says manuscript titles have to be boring?

Just look at this gem I stumbled upon yesterday.

Can it still convey an important message despite its unconventional, or better yet, fun title?

Heck yeah.

Have you ever published something with such a bold title?

Or, like me, stumbled upon one?

Send some screenshots my way!

And be honest. Are you singing it now? 😄

 

​

July, 2026

Apparently, I cannot even go to the toilet without being reminded of my research 🤷‍♀️

 

But let’s start from the beginning.

Have you ever heard of SDGs?
(No, it is not a typo, I did not mean STDs 😄)

 

SDGs, or the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, are a global initiative to work on the most pressing issues we are facing as humanity.
From reducing poverty and hunger to gender equality and combating climate change.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw them in, you have probably guessed it, a (hotel) toilet.

 

What I liked about the signs was how something as big and abstract as global goals suddenly became very concrete.

Use less water.
Save electricity.
Reduce waste.

 

Simple actions connected to much bigger problems.

And, of course, my eye immediately went to SDG 6—clean water and sanitation.

Because one of the focuses of our work at NIB is effective water treatment.

 

Thank you, toilet, for the unexpected reminder, but next time maybe let me do my business in peace 😄

 

Want to know more about SDGs? Check them out here:
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

 

July, 2026

 “SuperPlasma vs. waterborne viruses – who shall prevail?”

 

A new Marvel movie?

Maybe, who knows 😄.

But for now, it was just the title of my invited talk at the International Conference on Plasma Medicine in Japan.

 

When you think about human viruses, which ones come to mind first?

Is it something like SARS-CoV-2, influenza, HIV or Ebola? 

 

What about waterborne viruses, ever think about them?

Because we should.

 

Why?

Because they can cause serious outbreaks and diseases ranging from diarrhoea and vomiting to liver damage, paralysis and, in some cases, even death.

 

So how can we stop them from spreading?

By treating our water effectively.

 

And this is where our SuperPlasma comes in.

It was developed to help tackle the growing challenge of water scarcity, and at NIB and IJS we have been exploring how it affects waterborne viruses (among others) and how we can make it even more effective.

 

So… who shall prevail?

Realistically, in the long run, viruses.

They have been around for billions of years and will probably ‘outlive’ us all.

 

But in the right conditions and with the right parameters…

SuperPlasma definitely wins. ⚡

 

June, 2026

Trying to stop viruses before they stop us, aka virus inactivation

 

is one of the main focuses of my research at NIB.

 

Why do we do this?

Because, as we witnessed throughout history, including the very recent one, without proper mitigation strategies in place, viruses can wreak havoc.

 

This is why we want to stop them at the source, before they reach us and cause disease.

To do that, we have to inactivate them in/on surfaces where they may be present, such as air, surfaces, or water.

 

But how do we know we have successfully inactivated them?

Well, that can be tricky…

 

Because viruses are dependent on the host. Without it, they cannot replicate and produce new viruses.

And if we work with human viruses, we definitely do not want to infect humans to see if we succeeded in our endeavours or not.

 

Instead, we use specific cell lines, grow them on plates, and infect them with a specific virus.

Afterward, we can observe changes in cells such as cytopathic effects – basically, if the effects are present, cells are dead, and viruses are present (and vice versa).

 

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right? 😄

 

Well, not really.

Not all cell lines are appropriate for every virus, and we still do not have cell lines for all problematic human viruses.

Also, these systems can have different limitations.

But they are crucial, invaluable, and have already given us a tremendous amount of knowledge.

How do cytopathic effects look in practice?

 

See for yourself in the picture below, where you can see either dead RAW 264.7 cells infected with murine norovirus (a surrogate for human enteric viruses; on the right) or alive, non-infected cells (on the left).

 

What about non-human viruses? How do we determine if they are still infectious or were successfully inactivated?

 

***

🐭For many animal viruses, the protocol is similar to the one used for human viruses.

 

🪴For plant viruses, we can directly infect plants and observe the development of symptoms, confirming viral presence/absence with other more accurate methods (such as PCR).

 

🦠For bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), we infect bacteria and observe the formation of clear zones that represent viral infection.

 

May, 2026

Spoiler alert: I did not get it.

 

ERC grants are kind of like the Oscars for European basic science.

They support many amazing projects that have a positive impact on society.

As such, the competition is fierce.

 

In 2024, I decided to give it a go.

I had an idea worth exploring and felt it was time to put it on paper.

Due to some health issues, I had much less time to prepare than planned.

This is why the writing was very intense, but suuuuper fun.

 

Fast-forward a few months – I did not get it.

But I did get a grade good enough to apply for a national complementary project.

Which I did get. Thank you, ARIS.

 

I can’t wait to start working on it and dive deeper into understanding the mechanisms of viral inactivation with plasma technologies at NIB, with the help of our plasma experts at IJS.

 

***

PS: Huge thanks to the reviewer who wrote:

“This was an extremely well written proposal…”

It not only made my day (or week), but it also showed that writing a proposal in a slightly unconventional way can work 😊. You can get a glimpse of it in the picture below showing the beginning of my ERC proposal.

 

May, 2026

We have this one planet

 

One beautiful planet.

A planet that we all share.

 

So anything that happens on it affects us all.

Whether we are aware of it or not.

Whether we care or not (and we should!).

 

Water scarcity, food shortages, the loss of biodiversity…

These are just a few tightly connected global issues that have a huge impact on the lives of many.

 

Water scarcity especially is an issue close to my heart.

Living in Slovenia, you sometimes forget it is an issue at all.

But it is. A big one.

 

Over 2 billion, yes billion, people do not have access to clean and safe water or proper sanitation.

This means that every fourth person on the planet does not have access to this basic human right.

And because of this lack, over a million people die each year.

 

This is why one of the main focuses of my work at NIB is water decontamination.

To develop and test environmentally friendly technologies for water treatment.

Because everyone deserves it.

 

So let today be a reminder to be kind to our planet.

Let’s think about what we can do to make it better.

 

It does not need to be radical.

It can be a small step, as every step in the right direction is great.

 

 

April, 2026

Look at this beauty

 

Be honest, if you saw this poster at an event from afar, would you be intrigued to find out what it is about?

 

I definitely would.

 

This is why I stopped and checked it.

 

Great job to my colleague Maja Ferle at National Institute of Biology for creating such a nice poster.

I am always amazed by how creative and talented some people are.

 

Because the last time I prepared a poster, it looked quite different than this one.

 

And not in a good way 😂.

 

The poster does not only look good, but it also covers a very interesting topic – a comparison of how passive filters used by researchers collect fungal DNA compared to spider webs.

 

Guess who won?

Nature.

 

Spider webs contained more fungal DNA.

 

How interesting is that?

Have you ever thought about using something like spider webs as a way of collecting important data?

 

This poster is a great example of how good science and good communication can go hand in hand.

 

Congrats to the whole team!

 

March, 2026

Reusing figures

Just last week I stumbled upon this figure again. It is a figure from our joint review article (NIB National Institute of Biology, Slovenia and Jozef Stefan Institute) on inactivation of viruses using cold plasma, published in Trends in Biotechnology in 2020.

 

This happened at least six times over the years and these were just random stumbles. I do not know how many articles actually contain this figure.

 

I understand that Gregor Primc did such a great job making this figure that it was often reproduced.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the figure was always cited, so in theory that was ok, as it was published under an open access licence that allows it.

But I do wonder how acceptable that really is.

 

Because the author can spend hours, days even, preparing a figure, and then it is just copied and pasted, often in lower quality, in another journal, without any new input or added value.

Filipić et al., Cold Plasma, a New Hope in the Field of Virus Inactivation, 2020, Trends in Biotechnology, Volume 38, Issue 11, 1278–1291.

 

March, 2026

Can you see viruses?

With the naked eye – no.

 

With a regular, aka light microscope – also no.

 

How about with a more sophisticated instrument, let’s say a transmission electron microscope (TEM)?
Now we are talking.

 

We need such sophisticated equipment to see viruses, as they are very small, usually in the range from a few tens to a few hundred nanometers.
To put this into perspective, that is over a thousand times smaller than a grain of salt.

 

So how can we see viruses with TEM?

 

We can compare it to shadow puppets.
Imagine you are holding something very small.
You point a light beam through the item toward the wall and see a magnified shadow of the item’s shape.
By using TEM, we are doing a similar thing – just instead of light, we use electrons.

 

TEM is an extraordinary technology that enabled us to see viruses for the first time almost a hundred years ago.

 

It is also a technology that we often use at NIB to detect and observe viruses, among other things.

Below are micrographs recorded at NIB by Valentina Levak and Mojca Janc. 

 

February, 2026