This summer, researchers from the Bio Center actively took part in academic events and showed best results in competitions. Professor Mikhail Gelfand, the center’s director and vice president for biomedical research at Skoltech, shared his expertise in popular science lectures at the Summer School for MSc and PhD students. On June 8 and 9, he gave two lectures: at the Revolt Center in Syktyvkar, he spoke about how researchers find DNA sequences of bacteria from ancient burials and how this helps to reconstruct the history of past epidemics and understand the origin of pathogens. In his lecture at the Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa pavilion at VDNKh, he discussed how the relationships between our ancestors have influenced us in the 21^st century, who became the ancestor of Homo sapiens and what happened to him in the course of evolution. On July 1, Mikhail gave an online presentation on molecular genetic systems at the “Evolution of Complexity and Statistical Physics” conference in Yerevan, Armenia. At the biology section of the Summer School in Dubna, he talked about how advances in experimental methods have made it possible to decipher the DNA of ancient pathogens in the bones of their victims or even in burial soil. On August 24, Mikhail spoke at the IQ BBQ popular science festival in Kazakhstan about how communication with Neanderthals affects modern reality.

Five PhD students from the Life Sciences program won the scholarships of the President of the Russian Federation. The candidates were nominated by their research supervisors. According to the terms of the competition, the applicants’ research should focus on the priorities defined by the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation approved by President Vladimir Putin last February. The scholarships amount to 75,000 rubles for a period of one to four years. Our congratulations to Inna Volynkina, Ekaterina Guseva, Ksenia Lupyr, Konstantin Pavlov, and Polina Strelnikova!

PhD students and researchers of the center were in the spotlight at several events. On June 25-29, PhD students Dmitry Kryukov and Ekaterina Kuzmina attended the Forum of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS 2024) in Vienna, Austria. The largest international neuroscience event in Europe, FENS covers all areas of neuroscience, including basic and translational research. Ekaterina and Dmitry presented their research on nuclear expansion leading to chromatin structure remodeling in aging neurons, and discussed why running waves of neuronal activity are responsible for rotational dynamics in experimental data and models.

On July 7-11, the annual SMBE conference was held in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where Bio Center PhD student Ekaterina Ryumina presented a paper titled “HLA class I escape drives the evolution of SARSCoV2 in human population”, co-authored by Evgenia Alekseeva, Galina Klink, and Georgy Bazykin. Ekaterina noted that the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is closely linked to human adaptive immunity.

Artem Isaev, the head of the center’s Laboratory of Metagenome Analysis, gave a presentation at the Viruses of Microbes 2024 international conference held on July 15-19 in Cairns, Australia. Artem’s presentation titled “Viral proteins activate PARIS-mediated tRNA degradation and viral tRNAs rescue infection” sheds new light on the operating mechanism of the PARIS abortive immunity system and the role of viral tRNAs as anti-immune genes.

Associate Professor Dmitry Pervushin presented his research on the regulation of non-productive splicing by RNA-binding proteins at the international conference “Computational Approaches to RNA Structure and Function” at the Benasque Science Center in Spain.

PhD students Sofia Prokopchuk, Alexandra Kasyanova, Anastasia Batyreva and Elizaveta Gunko participated in the International Botanical Congress 2024 in Madrid, Spain. The young researchers presented their papers on genomic and transcriptomic study of new self-compatible lines of buckwheat, genetic and morphological study of seed shedding in buckwheat, and comparative transcriptomics as a way to identify conservative and dynamic parts in the transcriptome of angiosperms.

At the book fair held within the framework of the Second International Arts Festival “Arcadia” in Ulyanovsk, Assistant Professor Dmitry Ivankov gave a public lecture on protein design and participated in the presentation of Skoltech’s book “Life and Other Stories”.

Bio Center researchers were also invited to share their expertise with the media. In a video podcast on the Universe Plus YouTube channel, Mikhail Gelfand and his hosts, Alexei Semikhatov and Vladimir Surdin, discussed which DNA is the oldest, why the human genetic code is shorter than that of an amoeba, and whether life can be fundamentally different. He also taught his hosts the genetic alphabet. Assistant Professor Vera Rybko, the deputy director of the Bio Center, gave an interview to the editor-in-chief of the World Class magazine, where she reflected on how evolution and genetics affect humans, what role the immune system plays in fighting mutations, and what mistakes can potentially lead to new diseases. Vera also spoke about screening, psychosomatics, cancer and its prevention, as well as the importance of biological age, physical activity, the microbiome, and immuno-oncology drugs.