ROMB cell and tissue culture laboratory was established at the end of 2018 and has a young, ambitious and skilled team.

Subjects of the experiments are plants of the Cannabaceae family – Cannabis sativa sp. (hemp) and Humulus lupulus (hops).

The activities performed consist of in vitro micropropagation of explants and induction of callus of meristematic, leaf, stem, root tissues and explants from male and female organs.

The plant material is used to create callus cultures/calli – undifferentiated plant biomass with a totipotency feature – the ability of plants to regenerate an entire plant from each cell/explant.

The main focus of the laboratory is to clone viable, virus-free and disease-free plant material, to induce trichome callus and adventitious root cultures. Increased synthesis of secondary metabolites in a variety of plant meristem and calli tissues is enhanced on a variety of nutrient media, as well as by the addition of a range of phytohormones, vitamins and precursors of biologically active substances. Of interest are the unique substances secreted by the plants – cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, phytohormones and more.

A new trend is the selection of varieties with improved quality and higher yields, as well as the production of intra- and interspecific hybrids within the family, as well as increasing the quality and quantity of secondary metabolites and biologically active substances by using classical and modern genetic methods.

The laboratory has developed in-house laboratory methods and optimized nutrient media for inducing callus from all types of explants (leaves, stems, roots, flower fruits and buds, pollen) from all working varieties and regeneration of calli cultures from low-density cell cultures.

The laboratory has stable callus induction media, from which it is possible to obtain different end products depending on the purpose – there are optimized nutrient media and protocols for callus multiplication, induction of certain  organs by direct and indirect organogenesis, induction of whole plants, rooting, propagating and induction of trichome calli. The lab has an optimized rooting media that speeds up the process and roots are formed at times faster than conventional methods. Attempts have been successfully made to induce calli from non-fresh plant biomass. Positive results were obtained for the synthesis of target cannabinoids in callus cultures and small explants (1-7 cm). We are constantly working to increase the concentration of cannabinoids obtained by tissue cultivation, to optimize the extraction processes of cannabinoids from tissue cultures, and to scale the process from laboratory to industrial for the implementation of cost-effective production of controlled concentrations of cannabinoids.

The laboratory team is constantly striving to expand the scope of activities, and to this end, more and more innovative experiments are being conducted that could find a place in modern innovative biotechnology solutions. Plant biotechnology is a complex science involving many fields. We follow the current trends in the field, both in mass production and in research.