by Arkady SINITSYN, Dr. Sc. (Chemistry), head of the Laboratory of Physicochemical Transformation of Polymers, Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University; also, head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology of Enzymes, Bach Institute of Biochemistry (Russian Academy of Sciences), Moscow, Russia It is hard to visualize the present-day world without biotechnology and its products. Hence further advancement of this line of research and creation of an adequate industrial base are an essential condition for competiveness of Russian goods on domestic and international markets. Yet only few promising projects are in practical demand. Dr. Arkady Sinitsyn, however, is hopeful about the future, as he told our reporter Yevgeniya Sidorova in an interview. -- You and your colleagues are in search of new effective enzymes to be used as catalysts in many industries. Publications of your associates and postgraduate students show that research laboratories are building up their innovation potential. How do you manage to expand the list of your innovative products, even though the funding situation has changed for the worse in this past decade? Your success story? -Ours is a unique collective, to begin with. These are both specialists of the laboratories I am heading, and col- стр. 12 Three-dimensional models of enzymes hydrolyzing the plant raw material. leagues of allied laboratories at the Pushchino-based Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, and at the Research Institute of Food Biotechnology attached to the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In formal terms we are brought together by the Collective Use Center set up in 2006 on the basis of the RAS Bach Institute of Biochemistry and equipped with facilities for microbial synthesis and enzymic research. Each group is responsible for its domain of research. For instance, our colleagues at Pushchino are involved with mutagenesis* and op ... Читать далее