The hands-on 4-day qPCR Experience® workshop: Real-time PCR in Plant pathology: Diagnostics and Reseach is successfully finished.
Workshop was organised by National Institute of Biology (NIB) in collaboration with BioSistemika Ltd., European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) and Qdetect EU project.

The main focus of this workshop was the use of real-time PCR for diagnostics and quantification of plant pathogenic microorganisms and integrating EPPO Guidelines.

The workshop covered qPCR theory review, practical guidance on plant sample preparation and quality control, assay design and quality assurance issues relating to ISO/IEC 17025. Participants attended extensive hands-on laboratory sessions and data analysis sessions. Successful team work, collaboration, questioning and interesting debates were encouraged between attendees, qPCR instructors (Dr. Tanja Dreo, Prof. Dr. Maja Ravnikar, Mag. Nataša Mehle, Dr. Manca Pirc, Dr. Urška Čepin, Dr. Matjaž Hren) and guest lecturers (Dr. Neil Boonham, FERA; Françoise Petter, EPPO; Marga van Gent-Pelzer, PRI). Our international team (participants came from different parts of Europe: Italy, Poland, Germany, Finland, France, Norway, Netherlands, UK, Czech Republic) also enjoyed Ljubljana decorated with December lights and tried Slovenian specialties during the dinner at Ljubljana Castle.