Olha Yaroshko

Olha Yaroshko 
Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant
Institute of Cell Biology and Genetic Engineering NAS of Ukraine 
Kyiv, Ukraine 

Olga Yaroshko is a Ph.D. student in Biotechnology at the Institute of Cell biology and Genetic Engineering, NAS, in Kyiv, Ukraine. The theme of her Ph.D. thesis is “Development of biotechnological approaches to the genus Amaranthus L.” She is engaged in genetic engineering of plants and they have chosen amaranth as the subject of the research, due to its usefulness in food, medicine, cosmetics, agriculture. The aim of the work is to develop the conditions for obtaining recombinant proteins of human interferon (INF●2β) in plants of Amaranthus caudatus L., which can be used as a “plant-based vaccine”. Industrially synthesized interferon is used to treat viral infections and various types of tumors. Genetic engineering of plants for the purpose of obtaining medicinal substances is a promising direction in science. For example, in Ukraine there are national programs dealing with the development of “plant vaccines”.