What was discussed at OpenBio-202
The impact of sanctions, the outflow of personnel and the search for investments
Yulia Moiseeva, "The Continent of Siberia"
800 offline participants worked at OpenBio-2022, 4,500 people joined the sites online, the organizers said.
Despite the difficult geopolitical situation, experts from 55 regions of Russia and 14 countries of the world worked at the event.
According to the head of the event, Yulia Linyushina, the experts managed to build open discussions, in particular, about the outflow of scientific personnel from the Russian Federation, work under sanctions and the necessary support measures. Distributors, manufacturers of equipment and reagents for scientific laboratories, representatives of development institutes, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and scientific organizations took part in them.
OpenBio traditionally consists of several parts — a conference of young scientists, an exhibition of achievements of biotechnology companies and a scientific and business forum that gathers leading Russian and international experts.
At the full-time stage of the scientific conference, young scientists presented the results of their work. In each of the five areas of the conference, leading Russian scientists addressed them.
The first place in the section "virology" took Dmitry Baboshko (Federal State Budgetary Institution of the World Bank "Vector" of Rospotrebnadzor), who investigated the genetic diversity of the bovine leukemia virus isolated in different districts of the Novosibirsk region. Among the participants of the bioinformatics section, the jury members highlighted the work on the analysis of the interaction of amino acids of the sodium-dependent human transporter NAPI2B with ligands Ramili Vlasenkova (CFU).
In the section "biotechnology" the first prize was awarded Evgenia Buslaeva (CJSC "Farm-Holding") for the work on the development and cultivation of a strain of baker's yeast. The victory in the section "biophysics" was won by Yuri Efremov (the First Moscow State Medical University named after I. M. Sechenov). He studied the biomechanics of three-dimensional cellular structures for regenerative medicine.
In the section "molecular biology" the winner was Nikita Bizaev (Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences), who presented a study of the functional significance of methylation of the eukaryotic translation termination factor ERF1.
This year, special attention at the forum was paid to the survival of the biotechnology industry in the face of sanctions and the development of Russian science under the restrictions of international cooperation. Participants of the round table "Russian developments for engineering biology, biosafety and genetic research" we analyzed the problems of developers in modern realities, prospects for the future, access to foreign markets and search for investments.
At the round table "Reagents for Life science" the experts discussed the trends in the development of genetic technologies, the needs of laboratories in the field of life sciences, the problems of shortage of important reagents, the search for the optimal solution and the factors that affect their availability.
Round table "The realities of the Russian investor: the era of new opportunities" I gathered representatives of investment funds at OpenBio, who discussed issues of financing projects and companies that are relevant to modern conditions. The participants noted that the market climate has changed over the past six months, and now investors are investing more actively in more developed projects than in startups. They noted that small projects now especially need active support.
Within the framework of the round table "Age-dependent diseases. Alzheimer's. Consequences of COVID-19" experts discussed the effectiveness of medicines for dementia, neuropsychiatric problems after COVID-19, medical, social and molecular aspects of Alzheimer's disease.
At the session "Technologies of Life" experts discussed new trends in medicine and covered the full cycle of human life — from the birth of reproductive technologies to active longevity and cognitive disorders.
The round table "HIV in Russia: pharmaceutical treatment and quality of life" was attended by activists, scientists from different regions of Russia, representatives of the patient community, manufacturers of test systems and doctors. They discussed the quality of life of HIV-positive patients, stigmatization and medical care. A separate topic for discussion was scientific research on drug resistance to antiretroviral therapy.
The use of high-tech methods for solving medical problems was discussed at the round table "Artificial Intelligence in medicine". At it, the participants presented their startups, named the support measures necessary for start-up companies and the prospects for their development in Russia.
The forum participants paid special attention to the issues of intellectual property and registration of patents for scientific solutions.
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