Spreading your wings

MEPhI began to rise to the heights of biomedicine

Svetlana Belyaeva, "Search" Photos provided by the MEPhI press service

The 1st International Symposium "Engineering and Physical Technologies for Biomedicine", dedicated to the recent opening of the Engineering and Physical Institute of Biomedicine (IFIB) at the National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI", has ended. The Forum was held with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, the Ministry of Health of Russia and the state corporation Rosatom. Among the participants of the event were such stars of world science as Professor of chemistry, physics, electrical engineering and medicine at the University of New York at Buffalo, the founder of modern biophotonics Paras Prasad (the scientist's Hirsch index is 105, his work has been cited more than 48 thousand times, he is included in the list of the most cited researchers, according to Thomson Reuters for 2016). He also agreed to be a co-chair of the symposium.

Biomedicine reigned at the nuclear University for five days. In his report, P. Prasad spoke about the breakthrough research that is being conducted worldwide in the field of bionanophotonics, and showed the prospects for the development of this scientific direction.

Not only researchers from MEPhI and their colleagues from other Russian universities and organizations gathered to listen to the guru of world science, but also numerous university students who listened with interest to the words of the honored scientist, asked substantive questions, and in English.

It may seem to an ignorant person that biomedicine is a fairly new and not the most traditional direction for a nuclear university. However, this is not the case. Rector of MEPhI Mikhail Strikhanov recalled the research in the field of nuclear medicine (related to nuclear safety, the study of the effects of radiation on humans), which has been conducted at the university almost since its inception.

– Modern methods used in biomedicine are very diverse, and in order to develop them, it is necessary to expand scientific research in this area. MEPhI has the whole range of nuclear technologies for this, there is a very powerful department dealing with solid state physics, laser physics, which are now used in medicine. We are developing a relevant direction today – nanomedicine, where nanoscale particles are used for various types of diagnostics and therapy," Mikhail Strikhanov noted.

Indeed, nanoparticles and the effects of light, heat, and magnetic fields on them are studied at the university in the most thorough way. Perhaps that is why many examples from P. Prasad's report were known to the students present at his lecture. According to the rector, MEPhI is fully prepared to apply the entire range of engineering and physical tools to medical and biological objects.

– We are talking about tracing the effect of drugs at the cellular level, the dynamics of the course of diseases and the effect of the therapy received by the patient. I believe that there are huge prospects in such a synergetic combination of engineering and physical methods and medicine," the rector of the university stressed.

Since 2006, there has been a medical faculty at MEPhI. It was opened at the so–called "Obninsk site" - in a subdivision of the university located in the Kaluga region, where the world's first industrial nuclear power plant was launched in 1954. The idea of creating the faculty belongs to the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA of Russia) Vladimir Uiba and the Governor of the Kaluga region Anatoly Artamonov. According to M. Strikhanov, for several years the university has passed a difficult path to create a medical unit in an initially technical university: "We have already prepared six editions of good classical doctors, we have managed to create an appropriate teaching staff, but the idea that was laid down from the very beginning is to train specialists for nuclear medicine, to work with all those advanced methods that are used in the treatment of oncological diseases."

Today's graduates of the MEPhI Faculty of Medicine combine knowledge of both classical and nuclear medicine and have a good base for working in radiological centers, in particular in the A.F.Tsyba Medical Radiological Research Center located in the same Obninsk – a branch of the National Medical Research Radiological Center.

Recently, in order to concentrate resources on priority scientific areas, MEPhI has created five institutes combining educational, research and innovation activities and having a certain autonomy: the Institute of Nuclear Physics and Technology, the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technologies, the Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine, the Institute of Nanotechnology in Electronics, Spintronics and Photonics, the Institute of Intelligent Cybernetic Systems.

One of the largest – IFIB – includes the already mentioned medical Faculty, departments of medical Physics, computer medical systems, nuclear medicine, laser micro- and nanotechnology, as well as laboratories of nanobioengineering and nanobiophotonics. "We hope that such structures will allow us to train qualified personnel and conduct advanced research in such interdisciplinary fields as biomedicine," Mikhail Strikhanov said.

According to the director of the IFIB, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Irina Zavestovskaya, the new institute has two "powerful wings": nuclear medicine and everything related to it, and bionanophotonics. "Our main hopes for a scientific breakthrough are based on the achievements of MEPhI scientists in bionanophotonics, the production of nanoparticles and their applications in nuclear medicine," I. Zavestovskaya added.

Any scientific conference has several goals. On the one hand, it is useful to gather high-level scientists from different countries at the university so that they get acquainted with each other's activities and establish working contacts. On the other hand, to give students an opportunity (about 150 MEPhI students participated in the conference "Engineering and Physical Technologies for Biomedicine") to get first–hand information about breakthrough scientific research being conducted in the world. This time, representatives of the physical, nuclear and medical scientific communities gathered at MEPhI at the same time, wishing to interact in the interests of science and potential patients and able to "light up" the hearts of students, show them the most advanced scientific horizons.

– We have created a large institute with great ambitions and hopes for future breakthrough results, and, of course, it is important for us to see which are the top areas in the world, so we have gathered the star composition of the symposium, – explained Irina Zavestovskaya.

The reports of famous biophysicists who gathered at MEPhI were combined into the following topics: "Modern and promising diagnostic methods", "Isotopes for medicine", "Brachytherapy, proton and ion therapy", "Nanomaterials for biomedical applications", etc.

In his lecture, Paras Prasad, who owns more than 750 scientific and technical articles in highly rated journals and four monographs that determined the development of such fields of science as organic nonlinear optics, biophotonics, nanophotonics, nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine, gave an overview of the current state of affairs in bionanophotonics. In particular, the scientist spoke about nanoteranostics, a method that allows combining nanotherapy and diagnostics.

– In order to recognize the disease and begin to treat it, this method uses optical, magnetic and other properties of nanoparticles, – explains Irina Zavestovskaya. – Treatment should be targeted and effective. Now one of the problems that we are solving is the creation of a new radiopharmaceutical and ensuring its targeted delivery to a cancerous tumor by adding a sensitive nanoparticle to the radionuclide, which will help attach to the right place of the human body. After all, what is good about radiopharmaceuticals – the radionuclide that is embedded inside them lives for several hours. He "gets close" to a cancerous tumor, irradiates it for a while and becomes harmless to the patient and others. This is one of the safest and most effective methods of therapy!

Among other titled participants of the conference was Michael Scholz from the Helmholtz Center for the Study of Heavy Ions in Darmstadt (Germany), who gave an overview of radiation biophysical research conducted at his institute. Igor Meglinsky from the University of Oulu (Finland) spoke about the research of human body tissues by optical methods. Vladimir Lischenko from the Lyon Institute of Nanotechnology (INL, France) gave a lecture on luminescent organic structures and their use for medical diagnostics. Thomas Haberer from the Ion Beam Therapy Center in Heidelberg (Germany) dedicated his presentation to technologies, clinical applications and research in the field of radiation therapy.

– Thus, all directions of radiation nuclear medicine, laser technologies, photodynamic therapy were presented at the conference, – Irina Zavestovskaya noted. – Practitioners also actively participated in the forum. Vladimir Selchuk, Chief Physician of the Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, spoke about intelligent systems for histological recognition of tumors. The report "From pixels to patient" by Professor Hans-Peter Meinzer from the Department of Medical and Bioinformatics of the Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg was devoted to the methods of computer medicine. An outstanding surgeon Valery Krylov from the A.F. Tsyba Medical Radiological Research Center in Obninsk spoke about the current state and prospects of radionuclide therapy in Russia.

Within the framework of the forum, a kind of "brainstorming" took place, the participants of which discussed the possibilities of applying the latest methods of nuclear biomedicine in general practice, bringing breakthrough scientific ideas to clinical trials.

MEPhI has a serious foundation for this: The University closely cooperates with the clinics of the FMBA of Russia, leading Russian oncological and radiological research centers. In addition, the university has a powerful partner in the Kaluga cluster in the field of biotechnology and biomedicine, which requires young qualified specialists in these areas. Currently, the idea of creating a Translational Medicine Center on the basis of the MEPhI Research Institute is being actively discussed, which will reduce the time gap between the phase of preclinical research and the stage of clinical trials.

– A lot of things are being done today "hot on the heels", "from the wheels". Good ideas are born that you want to implement quickly. We are aware that the level of biomedical science that Professor Prasad has shown is still unattainable for us. But I am sure we will reach the level of a good European university in biomedicine in the near future," Mikhail Strikhanov summed up.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  28.10.2016