PhD students of the Laboratory of Metagenome Analysis — Polina Iarema, Oksana Kotovskaya, and Svetlana Belukhina — took part in the Viruses of Microbes (VoM 2026) conference, held in Prague from July 6 to 10, 2026. The conference, founded by the International Society for Viruses of Microbes (ISVM), is the world's leading forum for research on bacteriophages, archaeal viruses, and viruses of microbial eukaryotes. This year's event brought together over 600 participants from academia, clinical centers, and industry.
Our students presented three poster presentations:
Polina Iarema presented her study entitled "Nucleoid-binding protein H-NS regulates expression of diverse immunity systems," which investigates how the H-NS protein regulates the expression of various bacterial immunity systems, controlling bacterial defense mechanisms at the transcriptional level.
Oksana Kotovskaya presented her work "Determinants of efficiency and potential risks of commercially available therapeutic phage cocktails," addressing key factors affecting the efficacy and potential risks of commercial phage cocktails in therapy — a pressing issue on the path to implementing phage therapy in clinical practice.
Svetlana Belukhina presented her research "Phage tRNAs as inhibitors of bacteria immunity systems," which examines how phage tRNAs can suppress bacterial defense systems, opening new perspectives for understanding the molecular mechanisms of virus-bacterium interactions.
Participation in the conference was a valuable experience for our young researchers. They had the opportunity to present their results to the international scientific community, discuss them with leading experts in virology and microbiology, receive feedback, and establish new professional connections. All three noted the high level of discussions and the inspiring atmosphere of the forum.
We congratulate Polina, Oksana, and Svetlana on their successful participation and wish them further outstanding scientific achievements!
