Biotech for all: Tomsk universities and TNRMC in integration project

TOMSK, Sep 16 – RIA Tomsk. Four Tomsk universities and research medical center (includes six research institutes), to create a laboratory base and together train specialists at the "Center for Biomedicine and Biotechnology". About how new structure will be managed and financed, as well as its importance in the creating of the "Big University" – in the material of RIA Tomsk.

Earlier it was reported that the regional authorities want to create a "Big University" in Tomsk by 2020, which, while retaining legal independence, will include all universities and research institutes. Integration is necessary to win the competition of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation to create one of the 15 world-class research and educational centers (REC). Tomsk is already on the list of 20 cities where conditions for the formation of REC have developed.

How to unite?

Talk about the unification of Tomsk universities in one form or another has been going on for about 20 years, says Alexey Sazonov, the adviser to the presidentship of Tomsk State University (TSU). And each time the fundamental question remained unanswered – how to combine the resources of universities and what can they share with each other? So speaking of the "Big University", everyone understands that an administrative superstructure alone will not be enough.

"There should be an integrative history. The window of opportunity already consists in the fact that both universities and research institutes are now in the same ministry, and we don’t have departmental contradictions when we must, for example, rent something from each other on a mandatory basis. We indeed can physically combine our capabilities", – the interlocutor of the agency said.

Sazonov – a graduate of the Siberian State Medical University (SSMU) – oversees a project to combine the scientific and educational capabilities of four Tomsk universities in the field of biotechnology: in addition to TSU and SSMU, this is Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) and Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics (TUSUR). Another key participant – is the Tomsk National Research Medical Center (TNRMC).

"The idea came to unite our competencies in order to make not only the best biotechnology, but comprehensive. Together we must organize such education that will be in demand both from the side of employers and from students, who will be given different educational tracks at one platform", – Sazonov says.

Under the same roof

"The project’s symbolic name – is the "Center for Biomedicine and Biotechnology". Its main idea – is to create one common platform without forming a separate legal entity. There are biotechnologies at different Tomsk universities. At TSU – plant biotechnology, biotechnology of microorganisms. At TPU – chemistry, processes, devices , that is, chemical biotechnology. At SSMU – biopharmaceuticals", – lists the curator of the project.

According to him, TUSUR within the framework of the center should be engaged in the development of new equipment and software for biotechnology. It is proposed to physically implement the project in the newly built building of TNRMC. A completely empty four-storey building with a total area of 4.2 thousand "squares" is located in the center of Tomsk, in the lane Kooperativniy (Cooperative Lane).

It will house the equipment that TNRMC already has for mass spectrometry, chromatography, sequencing and genomic research, and more. With taking into account the installations that will be transferred to the Center by TSU and TPU, the equipment needs will be closed by 60%.

"The Center will serve as the basic infrastructure of Tomsk REC in the direction of "Bio". In order to physically create it, it's necessary finish this building. It's necessary to find money. Of course, work in this direction with the federal ministry is ongoing, it is very intense. We expect to solve the financing issue in this year, the reconstruction of the building itself can be carried out in a year", – Alexey Sazonov says.

As follows from the presentation of the project, investments in it over the first two years will amount to about 1.2 billion rubles. Universities and the TNRMC will have to pay most of the costs, about 200 million – for the reconstruction of the premises of the scientific and laboratory building – the initiators expect to receive from the regional treasury.

The Center, according to Sazonov, can start work already in 2021. A project to create 18 laboratories has been submitted to the Ministry of Education and Science for consideration: nine of them will be supervising by TSU, three – by TPU, one – by TUSUR, the rest – by research institutes and the TNRMC. Their names show how scientists see biotechnologies of the future: "Medical Robotics", "Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals", "Laser morpho-molecular medical imaging" and others.

School and Bioengineering

"We will make a network educational program for different universities, when it is not important for the student where he entered, he will be able to use this general laboratory base for education. We will start with the master's program in biotechnology, but in the future both bachelor's degree and postgraduate schools will appear", – Sazonov talks about the educational opportunities of the Center.

According to him, in the first year 30 graduates of Tomsk universities will be able to become undergraduates, for whom English will be required. It is also planned to accept up to 30 students on a paid basis – "quality" foreign students, as well as specialists whom the business will direct to professional "pumping". The School of Engineering Biology will work closely with the business.

In parallel with it, in the Center it is planned to create a biofactory for start-ups and a bioengineering center, which will only interact with the business as a specially created legal entity. To start the development of ready-made technological solutions and become attractive to the business for "Center for Biomedicine and Biotechnology" will allow the use of engineering approaches.

"If earlier biology was more a natural philosophy, now it is becoming more and more an engineering science. Starting with synthetic biology, when we can already create artificial organisms with desired properties, we can quite well manipulate genes and other tools that we need to start using, ending, for example, with environmental engineering", – says Sazonov.

Negotiations are already underway with some industrial partners, including "National Immunobiological Company" and "Special Chemistry" of Rostec, agricultural holdings (potential customers of new fertilizers and animal husbandry technologies), pharmaceutical companies, private clinics. It is assumed that the income from the sale of technology to enterprises in the real sector after three years of operation of the Center can make up half of its budget (about 350 million rubles a year).

In the absence of its own legal entity, the Center will be managed by a scientific council with representatives of universities and the TNRMC, which in turn will appoint a coordinating council for organizational activities. The laboratories and the school of engineering biology are supposed to be integrated into the structures of universities and research institutes. This should ensure mutual coordination on the one hand and high autonomy on the other.