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Genetics is our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

A source: hightech.fm

Influenced by a pandemic

The unexpected idea to bring the state of domestic genetics in line with international standards came to the government in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This can be seen as one of the answers to the global challenge.. The scope of the proposed changes is largely unprecedented.. In total, the president formulated eleven instructions, the penultimate of which directly indicates a coronavirus infection. In accordance with it, the creation of research centers is planned.,

"Associated with the development of methods and tools for diagnosing a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), creating vaccines to prevent this infection, as well as medications for its treatment ”.

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

Pandemic COVID-19, certainly, became one of the triggers of changes in domestic genetics. A source: vogazeta.ru
But the first commission, as usual, connected with the dearest to us - with the younger generation. Putin instructed to introduce genetics to schools. And this may well be a problem. The thing is, that now the curriculum is so busy for students, that any innovations require the exclusion of a discipline from the program. For example, it’s quite possible to attach genetics to replace astronomy introduced by the ex-Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva. A couple of years ago, she insisted on isolating this subject from a physics course in high school..

Voices are heard now, what, likely, genetics will be an optional course in the upper grades of science and biomedical profiles. Still, introducing genetics as a compulsory subject for all 10-11 graders will be wrong: discipline is very specific, and the school biology course already contains a lot of the basics of this science.

It can be assumed, that in a couple of years in the form of the exam in biology will significantly expand the share of genetic tasks, reducing attention to other sections. School biology is not so good, as we would like. From fifth to seventh grades, only one hour per week is provided. Three times more reserved for foreign languages. Situation is created, when school students do not master biology, and here they are in high school trying to "focus" on genetics.

The second important problem for school genetics may be insufficient material resources.. If you follow the logic of the president, the emergence of genetics as a new subject should encourage graduates to enter the relevant departments, that is, expand the personnel potential of a strategically important area. But with lessons, based on teacher theorizing, many genetic students do not get. Powerful recharge in the form of new generation laboratory complexes is required, which have yet to be created for school genetics. It will all cost a lot and take a lot of time.. Under the new subject, the government was instructed to create continuing education courses for teachers, which implies a kind of restructuring in the teaching of the genetic section, as well as the emergence of new textbooks. One of the centers for retraining will almost certainly be the Sochi educational center Sirius, working under the auspices of the Talent and Success Foundation. Now it is the most modern educational center in Russia for schoolchildren and teachers, and with the advent of genetics, even more high-tech equipment will appear in its walls.

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

A photo of the latest ISDM combat vehicle leaked to the Network, seen at the rehearsal of the Victory Day parade

We are at the rearguard

They tried to close the initial reduction in Russia's lag in the field of biotechnology even at the time of Prime Minister Medvedev, when in 2019 adopted the “Federal scientific and technical program for the development of genetic technologies for 2019-2027”. Little is known about the effectiveness of her work: arrived and change of cabinet, and coronavirus. A year ago, one of the reasons for launching the programs was the need to combat new infectious diseases and create gene therapy drugs. Russia in this regard in the global biotechnology market looks very pale. In fact, the only Russian drug for gene therapy is “Neovasculgen”, who treat leg ischemia. Release it with 2013 years and it costs several thousand dollars. For six years, by the time the program was signed, no more drugs for gene therapy had been created in Russia.

Tryptophan Amino Acids Essential in Agriculture, threonine and valine our country imports into 100% cases. The situation is simpler with enzymes.: import share - 70%. But even here in numbers there is a lot of guile. here, for example, lysine (essential amino acid) produced in Russia, and biotechnology companies even export part of the products for export. About any autonomy of production, Unfortunately, out of the question. All microorganisms for lysine synthesis come from the USA and Europe., the vast majority of equipment is also imported. Moreover, in Russia, even in principle, there are no competencies for the independent cultivation of genetically modified bacteria of a similar profile. It’s not possible to simply propagate purchased strains: after several tens of generations, bacteria simply degenerate. That is, amino acids are partially produced, but when the supply of microorganisms is stopped and there is no import service, everything will stall in a matter of weeks. The situation in the medical field differs from the above unprincipled: the entire high-tech material base and consumables (raw materials) are imported.

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

A bit of surrealism: Rosneft will finance and coordinate genetic research in Russia. A source: vedomosti.ru
The fourth order of the president serves to solve such problems.:

“To ensure the creation in the Russian Federation of domestic laboratory and scientific equipment, allowing world-class research in the field of genetic technology, as well as the production of consumables for it ”.

In accordance with the order, Prime Minister Mishustin will report on the development of the project for the first time in February 2021 years and beyond will report annually.

Genome in the Russian edition

To our country, looks like, full genomic editing coming soon. President Putin made clear, what exactly in this direction will the main bet be made in the program for the rise of domestic genetics.

Here at the world level everything is bad again. World leaders, US and China, publish several thousand articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals per year. In Russia, less than four hundred per 2016-2017 years. Three years ago, Russians registered 22 genetics patent. For one 2017 year in the USA - 9106 patents, in Japan - 3477 patents, in China - 2771 patent, in South Korea - 1847 patents in Germany - 1097 patents.

This is where the president’s biological initiative comes up.. With this level of Russian genetics, there’s simply nowhere to take teachers and researchers, able to pull our technology to the world level. After all, if no one is particularly engaged in successful practical work, then there will be nobody to tell about this to students of medical and biological faculties. Again call from abroad? To solve this problem, the government was instructed to study the needs of the industry in highly qualified personnel and draw up a development program.

A negative trend is the localization of all genetic research in government. Despite the very modest representation of Russia in world markets, According to expert estimates, at 2018 the year genetic research was conducted by teams 80 scientific and 40 higher education organizations of the country. Estimated budget, allocated to finance this area, amounted to more 22 billion. rubles! This is a question about the efficiency of using budget funds.. At the same time in the program, adopted under Medvedev, mentioned about 1 billion. dollars, that have been invested by private investors in genetic startups in the US with 2013 by 2016 of the year.

Unfortunately, in Russia, all genetic undertakings will be given to Rosneft and the Kurchatov Scientific Center. The latter will form the "National Base of Genetic Information", where gene copies of ethnic groups of Russia will be stored in digital form, fauna and flora. The fundamental problem of the entire genetic concept lies in the delegation of management functions to state-owned companies..

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

Genetics – our everything? President Putin's Biological Initiative

Russian troops ZVO in Transnistria fulfilled fire tasks

The Kurchatov Institute National Research Center will become the lead organization in the project “National Base of Genetic Information”. A source: nrcki.ru
In our country, there is virtually no market for biotechnological products, as well as genetic engineering products. Remember, how we created a persistent negative stereotype for genetically modified products. Any grandmother will give a hundred reasons against GMOs and startle at the mention of the notorious Monsanto Corporation. Nobody buys, therefore no one produces, and if you suddenly need, then go abroad. Besides, we still feel the echoes of the Soviet period of persecution of genetics, during which the country was decades behind world science.

Therefore, we have to invent new programs for the breakthrough development of genetics or artificial intelligence with a distant prospect of implementation. Even if we hypothetically allow the success of the implementation of part of the provisions of the program, then the question remains: who in Russia will buy the received technology? With billions of dollars invested, domestic consumption will never pay back even parts of the investment.. so, need to enter foreign markets, which is fraught with a lot of problems. At first, nobody is waiting for us there: Russia in the world is in no way associated with genetics and biotechnology, Yes, and all pieces of the market are already divided. And secondly, Now all the leading countries of the world are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into medical genetics in search of a vaccine from COVID-19 and in the near future the society will receive considerable dividends. Technological bonuses from such a race will be comparable to the flight of Gagarin and the American lunar mission. Russia is trying to keep up with global trends, but there is a high probability, that this whole story will be similar to our main “breakthroughs" of the beginning of the century: Rusnano and Skolkovo.

Yevgeny Fyodorov

A source

                          
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