The pandemic and introduced protective measures against COVID-19 have created a great storm for dispute, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. In this article, Marina Dukhinova, an immunologist and a senior researcher at ITMO’s ChemBio Cluster, answers the most frequently asked questions about immunity, antibodies, and revaccination.
ITMO University has recently hosted a summer school for young scholars striving for international recognition. The school participants defended their roadmaps for developing world-class laboratories in their regions and shared their impressions with ITMO.NEWS.
The PI SCHOOL is designed for young scholars wishing to learn how to put together teams, pose scientific objectives, seek project funding, and publish their results in major peer-reviewed journals. At the end of the one-week course, students will present their roadmaps for creating research laboratories that will be noticed not only in Russia but also in the world.
According to the ranking of the Expert analytic center, ITMO’s performance in 2020 placed it in the top 5 Russian universities, also making it the number one in engineering sciences. ITMO was also named the best in four other subjects. All in all, the university was represented by 13 disciplines out of the 16 currently offered at ITMO.
Chantal Tracey came from Jamaica to study for a PhD at ChemBio Cluster, having previously received a Master’s from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. We caught up with her to hear all about a day in the life of a PhD student and member of the 3D printing of functional nanomaterials group at the SCAMT.
The school will feature presentations by leading scholars from different parts of Russia who will speak about their research teams known in the country and abroad. Participants will be able to create laboratories at their higher education institutions with the support of the school’s mentors.
Almost 60 ITMO University students have received this year’s Potanin Foundation Scholarship. Thus, the university came third behind St. Petersburg State University and Lomonosov Moscow State University. The students will receive a monthly stipend of 25,000 rubles until the end of their Master’s studies.
Tatiana Statsenko, a second-year Master’s student at SCAMT, has recently spent a month and a half doing an internship in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. There, together with her colleagues from the Saints Cyril and Methodius University, she explored the synthesis of perovskite nanocrystals.
Hollow nanocapsules are widely used for various purposes: from targeted drug delivery to catalytic reactions in petrochemistry. An article on the method was published in Chemistry of Materials.
ITMO University hosted the sixth school by SCAMT Institute. Almost 50 participants from all over Russia gained experience in the various fields of research offered at the ChemBio Cluster.
Marina Dukhinova is a biologist and immunologist whose research focuses on the use of immune modulation in the treatment of inflammatory and cancerous diseases.
The image was taken during an experiment devised to test the use of spider silk in the creation of biocompatible materials – a promising medium for targeted drug delivery and nerve tissue regeneration.
During the third scientific meetup, Elena Koshel, an associate professor at ITMO University’s ChemBio Cluster and head of the Microbiology team, discussed DNA robots and how specialists at SCAMT are using them to develop a new system for express diagnostics.
The program will train researchers and specialists in introducing genomics and bioinformatics into industry and healthcare. Over the course of the program, students will acquire sequencing methods and the methods used in genetic engineering, as well as programming and data analysis for genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and their combinations. The program will start at the basics, so there are no strict entry requirements for applicants.