V.P.Skulachev – not about prolonging youth, but about bioinformatics
Skulachev: in bioengineering, it takes at least 13 years to train a scientist
The material was prepared by Maria Saltykova (HSE), especially for RIA NovostiIn May of this year, American scientist Craig Venter, the creator of the first human genome, announced a new discovery – "artificial life".
Vladimir Skulachev, Dean of the Faculty of Bioinformatics and Bioengineering of Moscow State University, Director of the Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology named after A.N. Belozersky, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells RIA Novosti what discoveries in bioengineering are possible here and how scientists are trained in this field.
– Vladimir Petrovich, bioengineering and bioinformatics – young sciences. What knowledge do specialists need in them?– Previously, bioengineering was understood as work in technical production.
Let's say the person who makes sure that yeast reproduces well is a biotechnological engineer. But our students are future scientists.
The pinnacle of modern bioengineering as a science is the synthesis of the bacterial genome: a new one was introduced into a cell with a destroyed genome, it began to divide, and its genome turned out to be similar to a synthetic one. Before that, something similar was done only with a virus.
The subject of bioinformatics is the analysis of genomes and the creation of a model of metabolism. The genome is a "text" consisting of several billion "letters", they are entered into the computer's memory, and you can get pictures and compare the genomes of different living beings: humans and chimpanzees, mice and dogs, one and another bacteria.
Both a bioengineer and a bioinformatician must be proficient in mathematical methods, have chemical and biological knowledge, and computer skills.
Mathematics is more convenient for our applicants when conducting a written exam, so we chose it as an additional entrance test. Compared to the Unified State Exam, the tasks are more complex. However, we help our future students in advance: we cooperate with schools, organize Olympiads, our profile class has been in the Specialized Educational and Scientific Center named after A.N. Kolmogorov at Moscow State University for 4 years.
– How are students prepared for scientific work?– Already in the second semester of the first year, they solve problems in bioinformatics.
Bioengineering later is a very difficult craft, masterly work is required here: first you need to destroy the cell's own genome (without killing it at the same time), then introduce a synthetic one into it, and before that, synthesize information. They will be ready for all this only by the end of the 3rd or 4th year, although they can do theoretical work earlier.
I think a scientist can appear only from a scientist, according to the principle of "cell from cell". We have a strong school of bioinformatics, it was created by Israel Gelfand, a brilliant mathematician. Today, as lecturers, we attract scientists from the Belozersky Institute, from the biofactory, chemical faculty, and Mehmat of Moscow State University; we regularly invite scientists from other places to read courses. There are 216 employees at the institute, for every student or two there is one tutor – this is not just a teacher, but also a senior friend, mentor.
Sometimes 15 people are enrolled to one tutor at once, but he can select only two – the rest are distributed to others. After graduation, almost half of the course – 20-25 – people go to graduate school, the best after graduate school become "postdocs". Previously, older people defended doctoral degrees, now it is easier for a young specialist to do this.
– And how do you feel about the idea of switching to a bachelor's – master's degree system?– In relation to our faculty, it is negative.
We don't have time to teach much even in 5 years, and now a decision has been made on a 6-year education. There are large sections that would be useful for a future bioengineer, including humanities. Rhetoric, art history, some languages in addition to English – Spanish, German, French…
My dream is a 13–year preparation: 2 years in school, 5 years in university, 3 more years in graduate school and 3 years of "postdoc" – if during this time you have not become a scientist, then you need to change your profession. There is a saying that "it is difficult to get to Moscow State University, but it is also difficult to fly out of there," but this is not the case with us – almost a quarter are eliminated.
– What are the differences in teaching bioengineering and bioinformatics here and abroad? And what is required to conduct scientific research in these areas?– Abroad, as a rule, not the faculty, but the department of bioengineering or bioinformatics.
We cooperate with Leiden University – every year they take ten of our students from the 3rd year. Bioinformatics is worse for them, but students get more familiar with bioengineering, molecular biology, genetics, and related specialties. In addition, it is very important for a young person to see that the world is different, in Soviet times students were deprived of this.
Anyone who is engaged in bioinformatics, except for a supercomputer, does not need anything else, and we were lucky with this: Chebyshev Moscow State University is among the 50 most powerful computers in the world.
But bioengineering is a very expensive science, and here our instrumentation is weaker than in the West. However, the situation is not hopeless either – 7 years ago we started a project to slow down the aging of the body. This year he won the RUSNANO project competition, which implies serious financial support.
Aging is an atavism: the humiliating state of decrepitude must be abolished, and I think in this vein the main discovery of the 21st century will be made, which will change the nature of man.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru06.09.2010