Biological Computers Engineering at Lomonosov’s Readings

19 October 2015 Public Relations Department

Altai State University is getting ready for the International “Lomonosov’s Readings in Altai: Fundamental Problems of Science and Education” Conference, which will take place on 2024 October with the support of Russian Foundation for Humanities and Altai Krai Administration.

The Conference plenary session guests will be able to hear the speeches of the prominent scientists from Moscow, Novosibirsk and Barnaul, including the report dealing with synthetic biology by Candidate of Biology, Head of Pharmacogenomics Laboratory of SB RAS Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine Maxim L. Filipenko.

“My report will be dedicated to the basic principles of synthetic biology and its impact on biotechnology. It has only become a separate discipline relatively recently, in 1990s, and consists of several principal areas,” says Maxim Filipenko. “Its first and most interesting area is biological computers engineering. Modern computers are all electronic circuit-based (commutators, transistors, transformers, etc.), while the given engineering involves the use of elements’ biological analogues. First the gene-engineered bacterial switch was invented at the beginning of this century, then the oscillator, now the memory. This is all made of purpose-built gene-engineered bacteria, intellectual biosensors of a sort, appearing to be information conductors. This area is quite extensive and rapidly developing”

The second synthetic biology area is metabolic engineering. It implies organisms development in order to produce pharmaceuticals, biofuel, new materials, bioplastics and other utilities.

The third area is the creation of entirely synthetic organisms. The start to it was given by American geneticist Craig Venter, who is famous for being one of the first to sequence the human genome and the first to synthesize artificial life. He was the first to obtain the synthetic organisms, the genome of which was entirely reconstructed in vitro.

“Synthetic biology is oriented to artificial biological systems creation and the development of existing ones in order to increase their usefulness and other properties,” explains Maxim Filipenko. “Currently, we are trying to initiate educational and governmental programs establishment intended to expand this area of biology. In Russia it is still at the primary stage, although there are already some studies existing. Some Russian scientists’ DNA synthesis projects have already become compatible.”

The Lomonosov’s Readings opening session will take place in ASU Academic Board Hall (Russia, Barnaul, Dimitrova Street 66) on October 20, at 9:45 a.m.
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