Biotechnology in Russia: there would be a desire…
"We got an opportunity to develop high-tech technologies in our own country"
Ru", how in the 90s his research on fluorescent proteins was put into practice in the USA, how the market for scientific services in Russia has changed in 20 years and what his laboratory is doing today.
From left to right: Vera Nekhoda-Khan (Bayer), Andrew Farmer (Clontech Labs), Sergey Lukyanov and Anatoly Chubais
at the Rusnanoprize-2012 award ceremony
– The peculiarity of your work, awarded with the Rusnano Award, is that fundamental developments have been put into practice. Tell us how it was done?
– If you have noticed, the first introduction of fluorescent proteins from corals discovered by us was made by the American company Clontech Labs. There was a biotech boom in the USA at that time, conditions are even better than they are now. So from a business point of view, there were no problems there. It was only important that the company believed in us and invested certain funds already in technological preparation, in the actual creation of the production of fluorescent proteins. But our discovery was so obvious, so bright and promising even at the starting point that there were no big problems with it.
We had been cooperating with Clontech for several years before in the development of gene search technologies, In fact, at that moment we were one of the leading groups in the ability to find the right, interesting genes, and this discovery was, in fact, an application of our own developments, our research. We wanted not only to give other scientists the opportunity to look for genes, but also to look for something ourselves. We chose such a task and solved it.
– And how did the cooperation with the company begin?
– Our friends, Alexander Chentsik and Lyudmila Dyachenko, who emigrated to the USA and worked at Clontech in those years, were the initiators of our cooperation. At that time, we really needed money, development support: it was 93-94 years – in general, zero funding for science in Russia. We started coming on short business trips to the USA and helping American scientists working at Clontech, sharing some methods, technologies, joint developments appeared. Then we started working on a contractual basis, and this allowed us to support our scientific program in Russia, at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The collaboration lasted until about 1998: it was then that we proposed new fluorescent proteins for commercialization.
– Now you are continuing these works, including together with the Nobel laureate Osama Shimomura, who received a grant here in Russia.
– Yes, we cooperate with the laboratory of Shimomura, which he organized in Krasnoyarsk with the support of a megagrant of the Russian government.
But this work is not on the topic of fluorescent proteins, but on another, no less interesting topic – the study of the nature of bioluminescence. My main scientific work is still concentrated at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where I head the Department of Genomics and Postgenomic Technologies. The department has a number of laboratories, and the range of work is very different. Fluorescent proteins also continue to be an object of our interest, including at the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Academy, where a bioimaging laboratory was organized with the support of a government megagrant, like at Simomura in Krasnoyarsk. In Nizhny Novgorod, we are working on technologies for the study of cancer cells labeled with fluorescent proteins. A great base has been created there, very enthusiastic young guys are working, a strong group. At IBH, we are also working in other areas that are new to us. For example, we are engaged in autoimmune diseases, immunology in general; there is a scientific group that develops fluorescent biosensors, investigates the role of molecules such as hydrogen peroxide and other reactive oxygen species in cells.
A very interesting direction is connected with the detection of oncomutations of DNA contained in blood plasma. The goal here is to create non–invasive technologies for the diagnosis and analysis of cancer development. The department is really big – it's impossible to list all the works.
– As for the commercialization of developments, do you have a feeling now that it has become easier to put scientific development into practice than 15 years ago?
– The word "easier" has nothing to do with it: and 15 years ago it was not so difficult to transfer these developments to America. Now we just have the opportunity to use other mechanisms and ways that have emerged in the last decade to get into practice. Today, you can get support from Russian foundations, such as Rusnano or Skolkovo. Recently, with the support of Skolkovo, the Nomotek company was created, which uses our work in the field of oncology, mutation detection, and there are other Russian developments. In short, today we just got the opportunity to develop high-tech technologies in our own country!
– You have your own company, don't you?
– Not now: I quit all companies and concentrated on science. But I am following their development with interest. In general, I was really the initiator of the creation of the company "Eurogen". Of course, I wasn't the only one who created it, I'm still a scientist and I couldn't have created a company and organized a business myself, but I managed to initiate the process. And now the company has become quite well-known both in the Russian and foreign markets.
– What does she do?
– This is a biotechnology company that was created on the basis of scientific developments, mainly in my laboratory. She started working in the late 90s – early 2000s. These developments are unknown to the general public because they are aimed at helping scientists work. It's not a very broad market. The company provides technologies with which scientists can find the genes they are interested in, study them, modify them. This company also commercializes some of the new fluorescent proteins. Recently, there has been a shift in the field of biomedicine: it is involved in the development of technologies related to the detection of tumor mutations, an attempt to develop recommendations for the treatment of patients based on these mutations. But this is, say, in such initial phases – for this company it is a kind of investment in the future, and not a source of income.
– The main activity of the company focused on scientists, it turns out, was aimed at the foreign market?
– At first, yes. Our efforts were focused more on cooperation with foreign laboratories and companies: in Russia, this demand almost did not exist. In any case, a modern company should focus on the global market, and in the case of biotech, this market is quite small. But I am pleased to note that the growth of the market for high-tech services to scientists in Russia is significantly ahead of the stagnating Western market and its share is becoming more noticeable.
In addition, every year Eurogen performs more and more work for Russian scientists, receives more and more orders from Russian companies and laboratories – today it looks like a confident trend! I think that the increase in science funding that has been happening and is happening in Russia in recent years, as a result, has a positive effect on the company's ability to focus on the Russian market, although, of course, I think Eurogen does not plan to lock in it.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.01.2013