The School of "Biotechnology of the future": we hope it will not be the last
"Biotechnologies of the Future" for future scientists and entrepreneurs: report
It was attended by students, postgraduates and young scientists from all over Russia: from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Perm, Tomsk and other cities. Out of 308 applications received, 91 participants were selected by evaluating resumes. The school was supported by a Russian venture company, as well as Life Technologies and Helicon. The organizers of the "Biotechnologies of the Future" are a group of young Russian scientists working both in Russia and abroad, as well as a "landing party" from the Higher School of Economics, who took over the organization of business games.
At the school, in addition to the opening plenary session, to which famous professors were invited to speak, six scientific sections were held, organized in two parallel streams for three days. Each direction was moderated by one of the organizers specializing in this particular topic. The following areas were covered at the school: "Genome sequencing and analysis", "Peptides and proteins", "Molecular modeling", "Epigenetics and chromatin", "Aging and neurodegeneration" and "Neurophysiology".
A distinctive feature of the school was a session aimed at increasing the attractiveness of a scientist's career and the development of biotechnological entrepreneurship. The organizers set themselves the task of showing the participants the ways to develop an independent scientific and entrepreneurial career in Russia, as well as to rally a community of people interested in the commercialization of fundamental knowledge.
To achieve these goals, the organizers attracted Russian and foreign scientists, entrepreneurs, employees of venture funds and specialists in the field of modern teaching methods. In total, 32 hours of lectures were delivered and 16 hours of additional classes were held during the 4 days of the school.
In particular, the school performed:
- Vadim Ivanov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. Academicians M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikova of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University, specialist in the field of chemistry of proteins and peptides.
- Mikhail Gelfand, Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University and Deputy Director of the A.A. Harkevich Institute of Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in bioinformatics.
- Boris Zhivotovsky, Professor and Head of the Department of Toxicology at Karolinska Institute (Sweden), Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, specialist in the field of research of molecular mechanisms of programmed cell death.
- Sergey Razin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the European Academy, Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in the field of compartmentalization of the cell nucleus and chromatin domains.
- Alexander Kaplan, Professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University, specialist in the field of neurocomputer interfaces.
- Andrey Chabes, Professor at Umea University (Sweden), specialist in the regulation of nucleotide synthesis and DNA replication.
- Maria Lagarkova, Head of the laboratory at the Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in the field of mechanisms of differentiation and maintenance of pluripotency of stem cells.
- Itis Komet, Researcher at Biotech Research and Innovation Center, University of Copenhagen, specialist in the regulation of gene expression by polycomb group proteins.
- Alexey Abyzov, researcher at Yale University, specialist in genomics.
The lecturers not only gave a "dry" theory, but also gave examples from life, showed photos and videos. In particular, Professor Kaplan demonstrated the work of mechanisms that allow using the reading of the electrical activity of the brain to control cars or put a puzzle on a computer. Evgeny Kulikov, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Microbiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about bacteriophages and their use in the treatment of bacterial infections. Sandra Schmitz from the University of Copenhagen talked about epigenetic drugs used to treat tumors. Maria Lagarkova discussed the use of stem cells in regenerative biomedicine. The head of the research department of the Russian Novartis, Zufar Mulyukov, told the audience how the results of mathematical modeling are used in the development of new drugs. At the evening electives, more life-like questions were considered:
- popularization of science in society;
- difficulties facing women in science and ways to overcome them;
- what are the grant programs, and how to get your own grant.
In addition to the usual lectures, the program included a number of activities aimed at establishing contacts between school participants and motivating the audience to continue research and innovate in their field. A foresight session was held, during which participants shared their forecasts of future technologies and inventions that will appear in the world until 2022, and based on the forecasts, they made a map of the development of the biotechnology industry in the next 10 years. The session was conducted by Nikolai Kotov.
KPMG representative Peter Korolev involved the audience in solving a business case - a real case from the practice of the pharmaceutical company Merck. The participants were divided into teams, each of which publicly presented a prepared solution to the case.
In addition, small games were also held to communicate and better understand their scientific interests. In particular, the school participants were asked to write themselves a "Letter to the future" – about their plans, interests and personal qualities. The organizers of the "Biotechnologies of the Future" will send this letter back to the authors in a few months.
School Organizers:
- Alexander Vasilevsky, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Co-chairman of the Organizing Committee. Moderated the section "Proteins and peptides".
- Anastasia Demina, Technology entrepreneurship support Specialist, curator of venture events at the Digital October Center, author of the blog Wanna Be VC.
- Ilnaz Kamalyukova, PhD student, Chromatin Replication Laboratory, Biotech Research & Innovation Centre, Copenhagen University. Moderated the section "Epigenetics and chromatin".
- Dmitry Kuzmin, Researcher at University College London, Chairman of the organizing committee of "Biotechnologies of the Future". Moderated the section "Entrepreneurship".
- Yuri Kukushkin, PhD student at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried. Moderated the section "Aging and neurodegeneration".
- Pyotr Fedin, postgraduate student of the Department of Innovation and Business in the Field of High Technologies of the HSE Faculty of Business Informatics, game technician of the Lemonime project group.
- Vasily Fedorin, a leading specialist in the analysis of RVC Biofund projects. Moderated the section "Neurophysiology".
- Anton Chugunov, Researcher at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Moderated the section "Molecular modeling".
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru12.09.2012