The Russian Science Foundation has announced the results of its recent grant competitions. Four Skoltech researchers won grants to establish a new world-class laboratory, use large language models to study molecular agents that reverse aging, observe molecular markers of follicles during fertilization, and develop a method for differential diagnosis of schizophrenia. Seven teams from other Russian academic organizations received grants to conduct research at the Skoltech Research Facilities Center.

Professor Ivan Tyukin from the AI Center received 108 million rubles to establish the Laboratory for Reliable, Adaptable, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence at Skoltech to introduce a comprehensive approach to the development of scientific foundations, technologies, and methods for the design of trustworthy, reliable, and resilient data-driven AI systems. His project will focus on resistance to perturbations of various kinds, both in the data and in the structure of models, explicability and factual accuracy of the solutions, especially for generative and language models, as well as adaptation to changing operating environments and the emergence of new data without energy- and resource-consuming system modifications. This Skoltech-based project will be implemented with the participation of leading researchers from the AI Center, including Professors Nikolay Brilliantov, Alexander Bernstein, and Alexander Panchenko. The AIRI Institute will be an industrial partner in the project.

“The overall goal of the project is to develop a holistic and comprehensive approach to reliable, adaptive, and trustworthy artificial intelligence and to create relevant theory, methods, algorithms, and real-world applications based on rigorous theory. The project should enable wide practical application of AI systems in critical and socially significant areas, such as medicine, healthcare, law, and security,” Tyukin said.

Three Skoltech researchers were awarded grants for research that will use the existing world-class infrastructure. Associate Professor Ekaterina Khrameeva from the Skoltech Bio Center secured support for research on molecular agents that reverse cellular aging using large language models of gene expression. The research will be conducted at the Computational Resources and Competences Core Facility of the Ivannikov Institute for System Programming of RAS.

“Aging is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which significantly reduce the quality of life and place a heavy burden on elderly patients and their families. The project will address novel therapies in the biology of aging and longevity — a long-standing challenge in life sciences. We will focus on fine-tuning a large language model of gene expression to predict molecular agents that cause a cell to switch from the old transcriptional pattern to a young one,” Khrameeva commented.

Associate Professor Oleg Sergeyev from the Bio Center won a grant for research in the field of reproduction, which will be conducted at the Skoltech Research Facilities Center.

“According to the World Health Organization, about one in six people on the planet has faced infertility problems that are commonly addressed using assisted reproductive technology (ART) which was a breakthrough 40 years ago but has shown little progress in efficiency over the past two decades. Our research will focus on identifying markers of chemical exposure and molecular markers based on a comprehensive multi-target study of follicular fluid, extracellular vesicles, and cumulus cells in the cycles of controlled ovarian stimulation. We will also attempt to identify efficacy biomarkers of ovulation and ART cycles. The research results will help develop a personalized approach and make the technology more effective,” Sergeev shared.

Professor Evgeny Nikolaev, who heads the Skoltech Omics Technologies Center, received a grant to develop a method for differential diagnosis of schizophrenia. The project will be carried out at the Human Proteome Core Facility of the Orekhovich Research Institute of Biomedical Chemistry. 

“Schizophrenia, a polymorphic neuropsychiatric disorder, is one of the diseases that causes lifelong disability. Today, its diagnosis is based solely on psychiatric evaluation of the patient, while the molecular etiology and the full spectrum of risk factors are still unclear. Our goal is to develop a method based on proteomic analysis of blood plasma. We will work in close cooperation with leading experts from the Alexeev Psychiatric Clinical Hospital in Moscow,” Nikolaev said.