Lecture on molecular evolution

Mikhail Gelfand at ProScience Theater

On May 25, Mikhail Gelfand, a biologist, deputy director of the Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will give a speech at the Central House of the Journalist. Lecture topic: "Molecular evolution". "Polit.<url>" introduces readers to some stages of the scientist's scientific activity.

Mikhail Gelfand – Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Deputy Director of the Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the European Academy, member of the Public Council of the Ministry of Education and Science.

Photo: Natasha Chetverikova/<url>

Grandson of mathematician Israel Moiseevich Gelfand, son of mathematician Sergei Israelevich Gelfand.

In 1993 he defended his PhD thesis on the topic: "Prediction of splicing sites and protein-coding regions in the DNA of higher eukaryotes" at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics. In 1998 he defended his doctoral thesis on the topic: "Computer analysis and prediction of functional features of DNA sequences" in the State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms. Since 2007, he became a professor in the specialty "Bioinformatics".

From the very beginning of his scientific activity, he has been a member of the editorial boards or editor of scientific journals: BioSystems (1993, special issue No. 30), Journal of Computational Biology (1997 – present), Computer (2001, special issue "Bioinformatics" No. 36), Archaea (2002 – present), Lecture Notes in BioInformatics (LNBI) (2003- present), plos Biology (2003–present), Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (2004–present), BMC Bioinformatics (2005– present), Biology Direct (2005– present), Bioinformatics (2005-2011), Central European Journal of Biology (2005 – present), Molecular Biology (2006– present), Journal of Bacteriology (2009-2011). Member of the editorial board of the book series "Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology" (2006 – present). Deputy Editor-in–chief of the popular science newspaper "Troitsky Variant – Science" (from 2008 to the present).

Mikhail Gelfand's research interests include: comparative genomics, metagenomics, metabolic reconstruction and functional annotation of genes and genomes, search for regulatory signals, evolution of metabolic pathways and regulatory systems, alternative splicing and DNA sequence statistics.

The scientist is known for his civic activism. Gelfand is one of the founders and activists of the Dissernet network community, which is engaged in identifying abuses, frauds and forgeries in the field of thesis defense and awarding academic degrees in Russia. In October 2012, he was elected to the Coordinating Council of the Russian opposition (according to the general civil list). In February 2013, he recorded a video message in support of the LGBT community for the project "Against Homophobia". In September 2014, he signed a statement demanding "to stop the aggressive adventure: to withdraw Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine and to stop propaganda, material and military support to the separatists in the South-East of Ukraine."

3 facts about bioinformatics: In 1970, the Dutch theoretical biologist Polina Hoogeweg first used the term "bioinformatics", defining it as the study of information processes in biotic systems.

• Today, the most common definition of bioinformatics is a set of methods and approaches that include mathematical methods of computer analysis in comparative genomics, the development of algorithms and programs for predicting the spatial structure of biopolymers and the study of strategies, appropriate computational methodologies for bio-research.
• The main efforts of bioinformatics are aimed at solving the problems of sequence alignment, finding genes (searching for the DNA region encoding genes), decoding the genome, designing drugs, aligning and predicting protein structure, predicting gene expression and protein-protein interactions, modeling evolution.
• This year, Chinese bioinformatics has created a program that calculates the calendar and biological age of a person from a three-dimensional photograph of his face. To test the program, scientists invited three hundred Shanghai residents aged 17 to 77 years. Thanks to these people, the program has learned to almost accurately guess the age by small changes in the shape of the face.

3 facts about Mikhail Gelfand: In his LiveJournal, the scientist writes about scientific activities, discusses social and political problems.

• He believes that it is quite difficult to engage in experimental biology in Russia, "even from the point of view of logistics" – therefore, it is poorly developed here. The drugs are expensive, they are delivered for a long time, and they must be ordered at the beginning of the experiments. After all, at the beginning of the year, scientists do not know what experiments they will put on in six months, as a result, the drugs expire. In this sense, bioinformatics as a science requires less costs: scientists need computers, fast Internet and salaries comparable to those of programmers.
• On March 29, Mikhail Gelfand took part in the "March Dialogues" – a series of conversations about important social events. The scientist discussed with Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev about the lack of connection between science and religion, explaining the meaninglessness of theology departments in Russian universities and the introduction of theology as a VAKOV specialty.

Mikhail Gelfand's speech will take place on May 25 at the Central House of the journalist at the address: M. Arbatskaya, Nikitsky Boulevard, 8a. It starts at 19:00.

Tickets can be purchased on the website timepad.ru .

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru22.04.2015