OPENBIO-2020: program

The annual complex of industry events in the field of biotechnology, biopharmaceutics and virology OpenBio will be held in the science city of Koltsovo from October 27 to 30. The main topics this year will be hepatitis C, COVID-19 and the fight against aging.

The first three days will be devoted to a conference of young scientists. The business forum is scheduled for the final day of OpenBio. It is noteworthy that this year, together with OpenBio, the Siberian Venture Fair will be held, it will be held on October 29, 30.

Secure Offline

The Organizing Committee of OpenBio informs that the whole range of events will be held offline with the addition of online. To ensure a safe epidemiological situation, the organizers will take serious measures.

"We care about the health of our participants and experts. All guests will receive a set of medical masks. Recirculators will work at OpenBio sites, and coffee breaks will be organized in such a way as to avoid queues. Also this year we decided to abandon mass production and made more halls to reduce possible risks," said Yulia Linyushina, head of OpenBio.

the conference

Biopharma is a priority

The conference of young scientists will be opened by the report of Vladimir Chulanov, MD, Chief freelance specialist in infectious diseases of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. Topic of the presentation: "Viral hepatitis C in Russia: it's time to change the future."

88 best reports will be presented at the conference in four sections: "Biotechnology", "Biophysics", "Virology" and "Molecular Biology". Participants will gather from four countries and 34 regions of Russia, from the Kaliningrad Region to the Primorsky Territory.

An expert jury will work in each section. Vladimir Richter, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Head of the Biotechnology Laboratory of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine SB RAS, will head the jury of the section "Biotechnology".

The scientist spoke about three important elements of a good report: "This is the relevance of the topic, the thoroughness of the research and a high-quality presentation. No matter how you voice a boring scientific topic, you will not make a candy. I also witnessed when candy turned out to be anything, if the speaker could not convey his idea to the audience or expressed it uninterestingly. I hope to hear good reports on eternal and trending topics in biotechnology. What are these topics? In the first place is the development of biopharmaceutical drugs, mainly in oncology and gerontology. The list can go on for a very long time."

Installations from experts

Within the framework of the scientific conference, eminent scientists will give introductory lectures.

• Section "Virology". Mikhail Favorov, MD, an international expert from the USA in the field of public health, epidemiology and laboratory diagnostics, will talk about the reaction of the world community to viral threats.

• Section "Biophysics". Albert Guskov, PhD in Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Head of the Department of Structural Biology at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), will make a presentation on "Structural biology as the key to understanding the mechanisms of diseases and the development of new drugs."

• Section "Molecular Biology". Dmitry Zharkov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Genomic and Protein Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine SB RAS, will give a lecture "DNA damage and repair in 2020: how protection from mutations turned into genome management".

• Section "Biotechnology". Tazhib Mirzabekov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, founder of several Russian and American biotech companies, will share his experience of creating and operating a biotech company in Russia.

Tazhib Mirzabekov shared what he is going to tell the participants of OpenBio-2020: "The presentation will be useful for students and young professionals interested in a career in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The information will undoubtedly be useful for those who have already gained experience of hired work in the industry and are considering ideas and approaches to start their own startups. I will tell you what you need to focus on first of all to establish a company, which way to move, how to look for venture capital, what conditions are needed for this, how you can do without venture funds, how to create your own product and start selling it without any external help."

BUSINESS FORUM

Solve the coronavirus problem

A round table on COVID-19 will be held as part of the OpenBio Business Forum. Sergey Netesov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Bionanotechnology, Microbiology and Virology of Novosibirsk State University, will moderate the discussion in the following areas: development of test systems, clinical trials of vaccines and the creation of potent drugs against COVID-19. The discussion will be attended by the heads of pharmaceutical companies – JSC "Medico-Biological Union", JSC "Vector-Best", drug developers, virologists from the SRC of the World Bank "Vector", scientists from specialized scientific institutes of the SB RAS.

"The benefit of our discussion is in the public discussion of ideas and approaches to the fight against a new type of coronavirus infection. New information from representatives of the pharmaceutical industry and scientific institutes of Siberia will be able to motivate industry participants to their own innovative developments. I believe that we in the industry should perceive coronavirus as a challenge for big breakthroughs in medicine, biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals, since its appearance has exacerbated the need to solve a number of accumulated problems in the diagnosis and treatment of acute respiratory viral infections," Netesov said.

Active longevity

The Technology of Life platform will be the longest on the OpenBio forum and will last seven hours. World-class experts will tell the forum participants about ways to prolong the active period of life, the impact of sleep on human health, safe procedures for skin rejuvenation and global strategies to combat aging.

"Our discussion is devoted to scientific discoveries, methods and technologies that appear in the field of prolonging the active period of life. Now it has become clear that medicine needs to be made more personalized, to look for specific solutions for a specific person. There was an understanding that a 20-year-old girl cannot be treated in the same way as a 40-year–old or 60-year-old woman," said Yulia Smirnova, moderator of the Technologies of Life platform and host of the author's program on Mediametrics "Youth and Longevity".

Among other trends in modern medicine, in addition to personification, Smirnova calls digitalization and the habit of monitoring your health. She notes that part of the medical functionality has already been automated, and people have started to independently monitor their well-being using digital applications and gadgets.

A new era of the pharmaceutical industry

The round table "Pharmaceutical circulation: a new era of the pharmaceutical industry" will become a platform for an open dialogue about current problems in the field of pharmaceutical circulation, regulatory and drug labeling. The moderator of the discussion will be Elena Khrustaleva, Candidate of Medical Sciences, head of the territorial body of Roszdravnadzor in the Novosibirsk region. Representatives of relevant ministries and Novosibirsk customs, manufacturers of medicines, heads of large retail and wholesale pharmacy chains will take part in the dialogue. The round table will discuss changes in business processes within the labeling of medicines, methods of state support for companies at the stage of transition to labeling, control of import of counterfeit products and the introduction of a unified national digital labeling system in the Russian Federation.

Andrey Meshkovsky, one of the experts of OpenBio-2020, associate professor of the Department of Industrial Pharmacy at Sechenov University, sees the point of the discussion, including in appealing to the regulators of the domestic market and industry associations. "Rarely anyone criticizes the shortcomings of the domestic system of drug provision. There are examples of critical speeches. This year, the leadership of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations expressed concern about the premature registration of the Sputnik V antiviral vaccine. In the past, the head of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers has repeatedly drawn attention to the fragmentation of the Russian regulatory system of the pharmaceutical sector. However, in general, associations prefer to live in peace with regulators. To this should be added the passivity of civil society structures, I mean university science, associations of individuals – industry professionals: doctors, pharmacists, nurses. Consumer protection associations also prefer not to quarrel with the Ministry of Health on fundamental issues, they have taken the position of asking for preferential medicines for certain categories of patients. I do not deny that this work is necessary, but this approach excludes criticism from below, and in the absence of criticism, the regulatory authorities will do what is convenient and profitable for them," Meshkovsky explained.

Fair with a touch of biotech

The XIV Siberian Venture Fair will be held jointly with OpenBio on October 29, 30. This year's event will be held with an industry bias, 23 startups from the field of biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals will be presented. Among the current participants are Aivoys Technology LLC (the winner of the fair in 2018), Mikravita LLC, Sial LLC, Embl LLC, research groups from NSU and institutes of SB RAS and others.

"There are projects that are somewhat similar to each other, and there are non-standard ones. We have selected startups of pure biotechnological orientation, there is a biopharma, there are related industries that also have the right to participate, including agricultural direction and processing of agricultural products," Dmitry Appel, director of the Novosibirsk Region Science and Innovation Support Fund, shared his opinion.

Participants of the Siberian Venture Fair will present their projects to the judging panel at a pitch session, attend master classes on obtaining investments, changing the market for corporate innovations, the latest trends in medicine and the agricultural sector, and analyze cases of venture and corporate investments with experts.

To participate in OpenBio events, you must register on the website openbio.ru , where the full grid of events is presented.

OpenBio-2020 was organized by ANO "Koltsovo Innovation Center" with the support of the Government of the Novosibirsk Region and the Administration of the Koltsovo Science City.
Co-organizers: SSC World Bank "Vector", Biotechnopark Koltsovo, Association "Biopharm", Novosibirsk State University.  
Organizational partners: HealthNet Infrastructure Center, Novosibirsk Region Investment Development Agency, Novosibirsk Region Regional Development Center, Youth and Longevity with Yulia Smirnova program, Russian Venture Investment Association. 
General Information Partner: TASS.  
Strategic Information Partner: GMP News. 
General Sponsors: Apteka.ru , Quatrain. 
Official sponsors: Fizlabpribor, Biolabmix, Biochemmak, Sistema-Biotech. 
Sponsors of the scientific conference: Helicon, Rheolgreidservice, Technoinfo.

Accreditation for journalists is available at the link.

Contacts of the OpenBio press center:
info@openbio.ru
+7 913 798 1440
Svetlana Albaut

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