Young scientists of the Sector of Neutron Activation Analysis and Applied Research of the Laboratory of Neutron Physics JINR Inga Zinicovscaia, Nikita Yushin, Dmitrii Grozdov, and Alexandra Peshkova became winners of the 15th European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation Euroinvent-2023. The event took place from 11 to 13 May.

The researchers won as many as two awards: a gold medal in the field of purification of heavy metal-contaminated soils and a medal of excellence in innovation for work in the field of nanotoxicology.

“As for the first work, we applied a new technology for cleaning heavy metal-contaminated soil,” Head of the FLNP JINR Sector Inga Zinicovscaia says. “We have been growing microorganisms and cyanobacteria, which got into the contaminated environment for several life cycles. As a result, we got a strain which turned out to be resistant to soil contamination with heavy metals, and which, we suppose, can be used for soil remediation over large areas. The second award is for research on nanotoxicology. We used silver nanoparticles functionalised with cyanobacteria. In addition, we conducted tests on rats to see how ordinary nanoparticles and functionalised ones affect them, where they accumulate, and what effects they have. It was assumed that by covering particles with such a biological membrane, we can reduce the toxicity of nanoparticles”.

It should be noted that Euroinvent is the largest exhibition of inventions in Central and Eastern Europe. Currently, European, as well as, for example, Asian countries, are participating in the event. The exhibition took place in the Romanian city of Iași. Hundreds of scientific papers and inventions in all fields of science were submitted for evaluation by the international jury.

Congratulations to the JINR scientists on winning the awards!