On July 7-11, 2013 a congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies was conducted in Saint Petersburg, where the biomedical cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation took active participation.
This year the annual congress of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) was dedicated to the topic of mechanisms in biology. The Russian biochemical society of RAS, the main organizer on the Russian side, invited more than three thousand participants to this forum, who are of great importance for the biomedical society. As a matter of fact, the only time this forum has been conducted in our country before was in 1984. Confirming a leading edge level of the event was the participation of 12 Nobel Prize laureates. A ceremonial opening of FEBS 2013 took place on July 6 in the largest concert hall of Saint Petersburg “Oktyabrski”. Among others the ceremony was attended by the Vice Prime Minister of the Government of Russia Arkadiy Dvorkovich and newly elected President of the Russian Academy of Science Vladimir Fortov.
The connecting link, the main scientific and social aspect of FEBS 2013 in Saint Petersburg was the topic of fight against oncologic diseases. A thematic symposium was dedicated to this issue, with Skolkovo Foundation residents participating in its sessions. The Foundation also organized an oncologic session chaired by a famous oncologic surgeon, director of the Eurasian Federation of Oncology, Dr. Somasundaram Subramanian.
Marek Dziky, the Foundation’s biomedical cluster CEO, gave a presentation about the Foundation and the biomedical cluster. Residents “NewVac”, “Petar – Center for Development of Personalized Pharmaceutical Technologies”, “Quantum Age”, “Sequoia Genetics”, “InArPharm”, “Biosoft.ru”, “PharmaBio”, “ANO “R&D””, “Incuron”, “OncoTartis”, “Quantum Pharmaceuticals”, “Regenex”, “Tartis-Aging”, “GemaKor Labs”, “3D Bioprinting Solutions” demonstrated their technologies at the exposition in the Foundation’s pavilion. Center of collective use “Microanalis” presented Skolkovo Technopark. Also participating in the sessions of the forum was “InArPharm”, one of the winners at StartUp Village.
A number of residents of the biomedical cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation made separate presentations at the symposium. “Neonatal NGS Genodiagnostics” project leader (resident “Sequoia Genetics”) Alexander Pavlov spoke about the assessment of the prospects of the use of next generation sequencing in clinical practice. Petr Fedichev, general director of “Quantum Age” conducted a lecture during lunch on “Modern approaches to development of new medicine”.
Skolkovo Institute of Technologies presented its International Research and Education Center “Stem Cells and Cell Technologies”. “Skolkovo Readings” traditionally became a topic of interest –within the framework at FEBS 2013 Vladimir Zelman, director of the department of anesthesiology and intensive care medicine (University of Southern California, USA), and president of the Association of American Doctors, gave a presentation on human genomes and future of personalized medicine. During FEBS 2013 a total of 40 thematic symposia were held on key issues of medical biochemistry, biophysics, proteomics, genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, biotechnologies, immunology, biology of stem cells, cell biology, etc. were conducted.
Alongside with the Skolkovo main exposition and lecture programme, there was also Foundation promotion made: “Become an expert of the Skolkovo biomedical cluster”, “Work at Skolkovo: job fair”, “How to establish a small innovative enterprise and become a member of Skolkovo”, “Idea fair: centers of collective use”.