OncoBioMed-2014: the best startups

The final of "OncoBioMed-2014" and the XVIII Oncocongress

Oleg Nikishenkov, Skolkovo FoundationOn November 11-13, 2014, the "Eighteenth Russian Cancer Congress" was held in Moscow, in which the Skolkovo Foundation took an active part.

Within the framework of the congress, the final of the OncoBioMed-2014 competition was held, which determined the 3 best startups in the field of innovative solutions for the fight against oncological diseases.

Oncological diseases, unfortunately, are becoming more common and are also getting younger, it was noted at the congress. There are many reasons for this, from an unhealthy lifestyle, poor nutrition, ecology, and other factors. At the Oncocongress, where leading practicing oncologists gathered, one could hear a lot of encouraging things, progress is noticeable in many aspects, scientists and doctors are making progress in the fight for the patient's life, but much remains to be studied and understood. And here it is important to understand that where traditional methods (chemotherapy, surgery, etc.) do not help, all hope is for new innovative solutions and scientific discoveries. The lives of people struggling with resistant, incurable cancers depend on them.

The congress is organized by the Russian Society of Oncologists and Chemotherapists (RUSSCO), since last year the BMT cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation has been actively cooperating with this largest professional association of oncologists in Russia. Sergey Tyulyandin, Professor, Chairman of RUSSCO said in an interview Sk.ru That the community needs to support the work with Skolkovo in innovations in medicine, this year a competition of projects (OncoBioMed) has been organized that could be supported by Skolkovo, we very much hope and positively evaluate this cooperation.

Kristina Khodova, Manager of the Oncology/Immunology department of the Biomedical Cluster moderated the session "Translational Medicine", where it was discussed how fundamental research is being implemented in medical practice. The congress participants learned, in particular, how successful residents of the cluster were able to carry out their medicines or diagnostic tests from idea to clinical use. Residents told about their technologies and problems of implementation:

• Andrey Zaretsky ("New Molecular Technologies") spoke about a new highly sensitive method for analyzing DAOSS mutations;
• Professor Nikolay Molokanov, resident of Lex Quantum, spoke about the new principle of multifactorial physico-pharmacological treatment of malignant tumors;
• Dmitry Ovchinnikov, a resident of Selecta RUS, spoke about the development of synthetic vaccines based on nanoparticles;
• Ekaterina Andrianova, OncoTartis made a presentation on the development of NAMPT inhibitors as drugs to combat leukemia.
• The CEO of the company "Domestic Pharmaceutical Technologies" Hermes Chilov told about the inhibitor (substance that slows down the development of cancer cells) "ALK/NAUK1 kinase" developed by him for the therapy of non-small cell lung cancer.

On the afternoon of November 12, a representative jury selected three winners from 20 (47 applications were submitted in total) finalists of OncoBioMed-2014, each of whom delivered 5-minute pitches.

The first place went to the scientist Roman Kholodenko, "Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry", for a project to study the oncoassociated marker properties of gangliosides-lipids. The project is being developed on the basis of research on the fight against so-called juvenile cancers, including neuroblastoma, childhood cancer, which manifests itself only in children under the age of 5 years.

The second place was awarded to the Biosoft project on the study of the properties of biomarkers used in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

The "bronze" prize winner by the decision of the jury was the Nobel project, which studies the properties of so-called platinum-organic compounds that can be used in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of dangerous and common oncological diseases, including breast cancer.

The winner of the contest, Roman Kholodenko, after the award ceremony with diplomas and memorable gifts, shared his opinion about the competition with a correspondent Sk.ru : "I felt here to the full that the technology that we have been working on for a long time and hard for almost ten years is actually very significant and useful for society."

Kristina Khodova said that the main purpose of such events (event in marketing – a special event, event marketing – VM) is to make sure that both people of science and professionals from applied medicine meet in one place. "It is important to demonstrate that the projects have a real possibility of commercialization, that they are quite capable of achieving this. The competition showed the level of projects, and cooperation with the Russian Society of Oncologists and Chemotherapists helped us to raise the representativeness of the teams participating in OncoBioMed-2014." By the way, many of the finalists on the sidelines said that they were going to be residents of Skolkovo in the very near future.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru18.11.2014