The 8th All-Russian Conference Molecular Diagnostics – 2014 was held in Moscow on March 18-20. The conference was attended by foreign participants, and included relevant Skolkovo projects for the first time.
Evgeny Imyanitov, Doctor of Medical Sciences and head of the Department of Tumor Growth Biology at the N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology (Saint Petersburg), thanked the Skolkovo Biomedical Cluster when he opened the Skolkovo Session that was completely focused on advanced technologies in molecular diagnostics of cancer. According to this renowned professor who will soon join the Biomedical Cluster’s expert board, the Skolkovo Foundation is one of the few Russian development institutions that replied to the invitation by conference organizers. The Biomedical Cluster of the Foundation not only became a partner of the conference, but also sent reports on one of its most fascinating projects in cancer molecular diagnostics to be presented at the conference.
Skolkovo's stand at the conference: Kamila Zarubina and her colleague
Five Skolkovo residents presented their reports at the conference. Each of them gave a 20-minute presentation on their technology advances to colleagues, and then answered questions from the audience. The companies that participated in the Skolkovo Session of Molecular Diagnostics – 2014 on March 19 included the following Biomedical Cluster residents: RusGenDiagnostics, Sequoia Genetics, Bio-Marker.ru, NOMOTECH LLC, and CSB Genomika.
Tataiana Nikolskaya speaking
The National Scientific Society of Infectiologists and the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology were the principal organizers of this academic and research conference, quite renowned in Russia and in the world in general. As Kamila Zarubina, analyst of Skolkovo’s Biomedical Cluster and Candidate of Biological Sciences, said in an interview with Sk.ru, the Skolkovo Foundation decided to take part in the conference for the first time mainly because the BMT Cluster has a number of residents whose research lines are fully in line with the priorities of the conference.
“These residents are involved in research and development in molecular diagnostics of oncologic, genetic and other diseases. For these startups, an event like this that broadly represents the Skolkovo community (Skolkovo has a stand in the lobby where people can get information on projects that participate in the conference and on other projects)—this primarily means access to their target audiences,” said Kamila Zarubina. “The research community is widely represented at the conference, including directors of relevant research institutes and healthcare institutions. At the conference, residents of the Skolkovo Foundation present, among other things, developments of medical devices and here they have an opportunity to talk directly with potential consumers of medical equipment,” said the BMT cluster analyst.
Tatiana Nikolskaya, CEO of Skolkovo resident RusGenDiagnostics (early diagnostics and personalized cancer treatment based on advanced NGS technologies), was the first to present her report, which was very emotional.
Skolkovo session audience
Conference participants shared with Sk.ru their expectations, as start-up managers, for the conference, which they attended thanks to the cluster: they mostly wanted to get feedback from the professional audience that attended the conference. They were also obviously expecting to meet potential partners.
“First, I need feedback,” said the head of RusGenDiagnostics in an interview with Sk.ru. ”I also wish to talk about the research that underlies our technology, and its fundamental distinguishing features. I also announced at the conference that in May we are launching a platinum version of our product: tailor-made services designed to identify optimal oncologic medicines for a specific patient.”
The conference organizers awarded the Skolkovo Foundation with a silver diploma for “innovations in molecular diagnostics and for high professionalism.”