Skoltech is an international graduate research-focused university that was founded by the group of world-renowned scientists in 2011. Skoltech's curriculum focuses on technology and innovation, offering Master's programs in 11 technological disciplines. Students receive rigorous theoretical and practical training, design their own research projects, participate in internships and gain entrepreneurial skills in English. The faculty is comprised of current researchers with international accreditation and achievements.

Skoltech scientists win Moscow Government Awards

Fifty scientists and research teams won the 2021 Moscow Government Award for Young Scientists and cash prizes of 2 million rubles for breakthrough research and development projects. Skoltech received two awards.

Skoltech Assistant Professor Petr Popov won the award in the chemistry and materials science category for his research work “Computer Design of GPCRs for Structural Studies.”

GPCRs are receptors that are of immediate interest to pharmacologists. In 2012, Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka won the Nobel Prize in chemistry “for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors.” Understanding how human receptors work at the molecular level is essential for the advancement of pharmacology and the creation of next-generation drugs. However, when isolated from the cell, the receptors are highly unstable, which makes it extremely difficult to design the optimal GPCR sequences suitable for structural research. This is a priority task performed using genetic engineering, and the search for the best design requires tremendous resources and can take several years. Popov proposed a new computational approach for identifying optimal genetically engineered GPCR designs based on artificial intelligence and molecular modeling.

“I was fortunate to collaborate with strong research teams led by Vadim Cherezov, Vsevolod Katrich, and Ray Stevens from Russia, the United States, and China and apply the new method to nearly a dozen GPCRs that play a key role in various human physiological processes. Currently, we are using the structural and biophysical knowledge we gained to develop new methods for designing small therapeutic and protein molecules with desired physicochemical and biological properties,” Popov comments.

Another research team, led by Skoltech Assistant Professor Mikhail Belyaev, won the award in the information transmission, storage, and processing category for developing AI-based medical image analysis methods that help detect and quantify major diseases, including COVID-19.

Belyaev’s team developed a series of new computer vision methods for medical imaging and published 15 Scopus-indexed papers. As the pandemic broke out, the researchers used their expertise to create a method for detecting and assessing the severity of COVID-19 based on chest CT scans. They published the underlying algorithms in Medical Image Analysis, the No. 1 journal in several Scopus categories.

“Based on this research, the Skoltech startup IRA Labs created the COVID-IRA service. The product processed more than 220,000 computed tomography examinations from Moscow clinics and hospitals with an average processing speed of 50 seconds per study. The product was ranked as a leader in the mosmed.ai Moscow Experiment in 2020 and 2021,” Belyaev says.

We congratulate all the winners and wish them every success in their future endeavors!

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The Moscow Government Award for Young Scientists has been given out in 22 categories since 2013 as an incentive for young researchers working in Moscow: doctoral students, research scientists, specialists, and holders of a PhD degree (under 36 years old) or those in possession of a higher doctorate awarded in Russia (under 40 years old) who work independently or in a team of up to three persons.

Contact information:
Skoltech Communications
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