ALMATY, Kazakhstan - The top two biomedical innovations at the Startup Tour in Almaty this week seek to modernize cattle rearing in Kazakhstan, with promising knock-on effects for the meat and dairy industries.
Ruslan Altaev of Skolkovo's Biomed Cluster, center right, handing out certificates. Photo: sk.ru
The Startup Tour is the biggest innovations roadshow in the region. Its aim is to build innovation communities around Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as inviting the top projects to the Startup Village in Moscow via the pitch contest in every city.
The contest is split into five categories – IT, innovations for kids, efficient-energy technology, industrial technology, and biomedical, where an sk.ru correspondent was present for all four pitches at the Almaty Management University on Friday.
The top prize went to a project named Genome Evaluation of Dairy Cattle, which uses an algorithm to determine the milk-producing potential and breeding value of calves as young as six months.
“Currently there exists no other way to assess breeding quality of cattle in Kazakhstan – our project can have a major impact on the agricultural industry,” said project leader Rashid Uskenov.
The innovation saves farming resources by taking the cows that are less likely to produce good milk and allocating them to meat production.
Uskenov’s team will take the project to Startup Village at the Skolkovo Innovation Center near Moscow on June 2-3 to take part in the pitch contest finals for a shot at possible investment and residency.
Second place in the biomedical track was awarded to Himkast, a team of scientists who have developed a method for the chemical castration of cattle that is five times cheaper and less painful than current products on the market. The injection also boosts their appetite, which fattens the cows up to be reared for beef.
The two innovations could become part of a modernization program of the agricultural industry that the government is hoping to achieve with the Kazakhstan 2050 strategy launched last year.
“Kazakhstan possesses serious export potential in the dairy and meat sectors,” said Alexey Strygin, project analyst for the Biomedical Cluster at Skolkovo and a jury member
“However, in order to reach this potential, it is imperative to boost productivity by pushing the technological frontiers; to go beyond existing production systems. These two technologies have the potential to do just that.”
Third place in the pitch contest went to a team of microbiologists and biophysicists developoing nano bio-sensors for faster detection of bacteria in the human body.
Biomed Cluster research assistant Jennifer Millar contributed to this article.