OpenBio: results
In the world of virus threats, personalized medicine and "numbers" – what was discussed at OpenBio-2021
The results of the eighth set of industry events in the field of biotechnology, biopharmaceutics and virology OpenBio, which took place in the science city of Koltsovo, Novosibirsk region, on October 5-8, were summed up. About 6 thousand people took part in the scientific conference and business forum.
Photo: Nikita Dyuganov
Compared to last year, the audience of OpenBio-2021 has grown significantly: 920 offline participants, 5027 people have joined online platforms. The geography expanded: specialists from 42 regions of the Russian Federation and 15 countries of the world worked at the scientific conference and business forum.
The scientific conference was supplemented with new topics and formats. In four traditional sections – virology, biotechnology, biophysics and molecular biology – there were also reports in the field of bioinformatics. Part of the research was presented by young scientists in the form of posters placed in the foyer of the second floor of the Biotechnopark building. The winners of the scientific conference were:
– Anastasia Gladysheva, State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", in the section "Virology" for modeling and analysis of structures of the new multicomponent virus Kindia tick virus;
– Maria Borgoyakova, State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", in the section "Biotechnology" for the results on the emergence of an immune response from the vaccine Kombikoronavak in mice;
– Zaret Denieva, Frumkin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the section "Biophysics" for the study of the mechanisms of infection with shell viruses;
– Sergey Sharabrin, State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", in the section "Molecular Biology", for a report on the use of MRNA vaccine against SARS-COV-2.
The jury recognized the works of Tatiana Nalimova in the section "Virology", Denis Kisakov in the section "Biophysics", Victoria Litvinova in the section "Biotechnology" (all three from the State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector") and Kristina Patra from ITMO University in the section "Molecular Biology" as the best poster presentations.
"Our scientific conference provides an environment for meetings and communication, for presenting their reports and understanding the place in life in which young scientists are. Today's conference, in comparison with previous years, has progressed very much in terms of composition, thematic diversity, and the number of scientists, both young and venerable. And this is the infrastructure in which future asterisks will grow, which will determine the formation of a scientific school and become the locomotives of progress," said Valery Loktev, Chairman of the jury of the Virology section, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, head of the Department of Molecular Virology of Flaviviruses and Viral Hepatitis of the Vector State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology.
World-class scientists delivered introductory lectures to the participants of the scientific conference. Mikhail Mikhailov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis of the I.I.Mechnikov Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums, spoke about the evolution of the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis in the USSR and Russia.
Every year, representatives of fundamental science and innovative business interact at OpenBio. Manufacturers of products, tools and services from development to production, present their developments at the exhibition, as well as make profile reports for developers and manufacturers. Ekaterina Avilova, PhD, Head of the Customer Relations Department at Cytiva, told the participants of the scientific conference about innovations that can be used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals: the use of media and sorbents to increase the yield and quality of the product, disposable bioreactors and a scalable line of chromatographic systems and columns for the rapid launch of production lines, as well as technologies and algorithms for optimizing processes.
"Every developer wants to scale pilot production as quickly and efficiently as possible, go through all stages of clinical trials in order to minimize the variability factor and the amount of consumables. If any difficulties arise during the tests, they can be overcome faster by using computer modeling and algorithms. As technology providers, at OpenBio we get a slice of today's science and innovation. We learn, hear and understand where the industry is moving, which will be relevant in the market in a few years," Ekaterina Avilova shared.
The Business Forum expanded this year and filled all four days of OpenBio with its venues. Special attention was paid at the forum to the virological agenda. A number of multi-format events took place: a plenary session and a symposium, expert discussions and round tables.
Leading virologists and representatives of pharmaceutical companies continued last year's discussion on countering the coronavirus pandemic. Sergey Netesov, moderator of the platform, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Virology of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of NSU, conveyed the essence of the discussion: "We summed up the preliminary results with prospects for the future, discussed the current situation with the pandemic and diagnostic capabilities, the development of new vaccines, and looked at how realistic it is to overcome this coronavirus infection in the coming year- two. We also talked about the situation in different countries. Specifically in Russia, it is very severe, this is due to the low coverage of vaccination, so the participants discussed new approaches to the submission of data on vaccines and their main role in defeating the pandemic."
At the initiative of the State Scientific Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", a scientific symposium "VIROM of Russia" was organized at OpenBio-2021. A report on the evolution of viruses by a world-renowned biologist Evgeny Kunin, a member of the National Academies of Sciences of the USA, Russia and Europe, a leading researcher at the National Center for Biotechnological Information (Maryland), attracted much attention of the participants. The logic of the symposium, as explained by Alexander Agafonov, Deputy General Director of Vector, was to discuss the need to consolidate efforts to prepare for new epidemics and create diagnostic, prevention and treatment tools.
"The problem of viruses has become more acute after the last pandemic. We have all seen how one type of virus can change the way human communication works. The global economy has suffered enormous damage. But the worst losses are 5 million people who died from the pandemic," Alexander Agafonov explained.
A wide discussion unfolded at the round table "HIV in Russia: the latest developments and problems of pharmaceutical treatment", where activists, patients, doctors and scientists conducting research in the field of combating HIV gathered. Experts from different regions of Russia discussed the importance of ensuring early diagnosis and adherence to therapy, trends and problems in getting help for people living with HIV, testing models, stigmatization, prospects for modern scientific approaches to treatment. At the end of the discussion, the participants noted the importance of an integrated approach to solving the problem of the HIV epidemic and the value of an open dialogue.
An important event was the plenary session devoted to big data issues in megasines projects, discussion of the interaction between the Siberian Ring Photon Source Collective Use Center and the future Lavrentiev supercomputer center. During the discussion, as Mikhail Marchenko, director of the Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics of the SB RAS, noted, "to a greater extent, there was an awareness of how serious the task of creating a digital binding of the CCP SKIF is."
Mikhail Voevoda, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine, Deputy Chairman of the SB RAS, called another task of the discussion: "The biggest scientific challenge is in the field of life science. Now large-scale projects with such names as "One million genomes", "100 thousand genomes" are being implemented in the USA, Europe, and China. Within the framework of these projects, in addition to genetic information, other characteristics of living matter will be obtained, and all this will have to be analyzed in a single complex to obtain fundamentally important information for solving health issues, creating new medicines and ensuring the sustainable functioning of our society."
The longest-running platform was the expert session "Technologies of Life". It discussed scientific methods and practices that allow people to stay healthy and live significantly longer. This year, both reports in the popular science style and highly specialized performances were heard on the site. Experts spoke about the influence of genetics on aging, oral hygiene and facial aesthetics, and youthful skin. "A very important report was devoted to the fight against stress in the modern world, because when we talk about longevity, we mean, among other things, the health of our brain, memory and intelligence," shared Artem Elmuratov, moderator of the session, co–founder and Director of development of the Genotek Medical genetics Center.
Yulia Smirnova, co-moderator of the platform, author and presenter of the Youth and Longevity program at Mediametrics, said that next year the organizers plan to focus on brain health and are already inviting experts from the USA, Germany, Japan and China.
At OpenBio-2021, an expert dialogue "Deal with Intelligence" took place with the participation of Leonid Guryev, a US patent lawyer, lawyer, partner at Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, and Andrey Moskvich, head of the Center for Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer at NTU Sirius, patent attorney of the Russian Federation and Eurasia. Guryev, at a briefing on the results of the dialogue, named two of the most pressing issues from the Russian business community: "The first question I discuss every time I come to Russia is who owns intellectual property: a company, an institute or a developer? These problems of ownership are always very acute here, the realities of commercial law in Russia are still different from what they are in the United States. The second issue is the quality of patents. What it means is "to have a good patent application". At OpenBio, we discussed what needs to be done for this and how to commercialize this application later."
Just like last year, a separate discussion on food technology was held at the OpenBio sites. Viktor Maleev, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Advisor to the Director of Scientific Work of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, made a report on the problems of nutrition of the population. Following the discussion, Anna Nenakhova, moderator of the site, CEO of Uralchem Innovation LLC, noted the difference in expert approaches as a distinctive feature of the discussion: "Everyone is concerned about the environmental agenda, everyone says that agriculture emits a lot of methane and this has a bad effect on the planet, and that it is impossible to feed everyone with animal protein, a key material for the construction of the body. We have considered alternatives related to plant-based protein sources, for example, protein from insects."
The round table "Development of the ecosystem of technological transfer" was devoted to the exchange of relevant experience and opinions between the regions, in terms of developments and difficulties. Vice-Governor of the Novosibirsk Region Irina Manuilova explained the importance of the round table in her opening speech: "Three technology transfer centers are being created in the Novosibirsk Region. It is important for the executive authorities to build interaction with them, accept their uniqueness and support them with all the assistance measures that they will need to ensure that the achievements of innovative business reach real implementation. For a short and effective way, it is necessary to make efforts of different institutions." Ekaterina Shekhtman, Patent attorney, Director of the INCO agency, noted that the negative experience and proposals voiced at the round table can help Novosibirsk technology transfer centers to build their work at a new level.
Another new platform was the specialized discussion "Risk reduction in the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases" with the participation of federal specialists in oncology, pulmonology and cardiovascular diseases. Alexander Rozanov, moderator of the platform, Assistant Director for Regional Development and Federal Projects of the Russian Gerontological Research and Clinical Center at the Pirogov University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, outlined the logic of the discussion as follows: "The concept of harm reduction is an effective strategy that can be successfully applied to modify most risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases since patients are more willing to take small steps to change their lives than to decide on global changes. I am in favor of moving from the paradigm of the order to the paradigm of cooperation and in this cooperation to set real and achievable goals for patients that will allow them to embark on the path of a healthy lifestyle through the least resistance."
During the forum, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Association for the Development of an Innovative territorial cluster of the Novosibirsk Region in the field of Biopharmaceutical technologies "Biopharm" and the Association of Bio-enterprises of Hokkaido, Japan.
Summing up the results of the whole range of events, Yulia Linyushina, head of OpenBio, shared her comment: "The evolution of OpenBio responds to the growing need to deepen the dialogue. The most serious issues of science and its connection with the life of society were raised at the venues. The four-day format of the parallel work of the forum and the conference has justified itself, we plan to continue this practice. We have the opportunity to connect top international experts thanks to the developed online infrastructure of OpenBio and the new architecture of the event. I would like to note the expansion of cooperation with Vector, the Virom platform has received a lot of attention from the press and the scientific community."
The organizer of OpenBio-2021: ANO "Koltsovo Innovation Center" with the support of the Government of the Novosibirsk Region and the Administration of the Koltsovo Science City.
Co-organizers: SSC World Bank "Vector", Biotechnopark Koltsovo, Association "Biopharm", Novosibirsk State University.
Organizational partners: Novosibirsk Regional Innovation Fund, Novosibirsk Regional Development Center, HealthNet Infrastructure Center, Youth and Longevity with Yulia Smirnova program.
Strategic partners: Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, Cytiva, P-Pharm
Official partners: Biocad, Rettenmaier Rus, Greenven, Fizlabpribor, PMI Science, Prime-Line Trading, Botany Development.
Partners of the scientific conference: Eppendorf, AZIMUT PHOTONICS, Helicon Company, Diaem, Interlabservice, BMT.
Contacts: Svetlana Albaut, Head of the OpenBio Press Center, +79137981440
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