Andrey Zuev, PhD student in A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IPEE RAS) in Moscow, Russia, supervised by Prof. Alexei Tiunov, visited our lab from January 20^th to February 21^st of 2019 under the framework of Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) of COST Action ES1406 (KEYSOM), under the guidance of Dr. Maarja Öpik. His work was devoted to gaining experience with techniques of DNA extraction from nature-grown ectomycorrhizal mycelium and guts of soil invertebrate animals, as well as to learning and gaining experience with bioinformatics.

Andrey is a member of the Laboratory of Soil Zoology team in IPEE RAS. The team is working on the problems of studying the functional role of soil invertebrates, the structure of the soil communities and soil foodwebs. Within the framework of complex projects, Andrey's work is aimed at studying the fungal channel of soil food networks, as well as the biodiversity of the soil macromycetes communities.

Andrey thanks Dr. Maarja Öpik for the solicitous and mindful supervising during the visit and the whole team of Plant Ecology Laboratory, University of Tartu for detailed guidance and warm welcome.