RU 
EN 
CN 
ES 
Samara National Research University and Samara State Medical University will unite forces to implement joint projects, including those in the field of IT medicine which is one of the key areas for the world-class REC "Engineering of the Future". This proposal was announced on the Russian Science Day, during the plenary session of the Youth Scientific Initiatives Forum, held on February 8, chaired by Dmitry Azarov, the Governor of the Samara Region.
The laboratory’s main activity area should be not so much scientific research, but implementation of practice-focused projects that will be of interest to the consumer and that can be brought to the market. Industrial partners involvement will be significant in the work of the joint laboratory.
The laboratory management, on a parity basis, will be provided by Ivan Bratchenko, Associate Professor of Department of Laser and Biological Systems, Samara University, and Andrey Nikolaenko, Director of the Research Institute "Bionics and Personalized Medicine", SamSMU.
Establishing the interuniversity laboratory will not only unite various specialists in one team, but also help attract grants for interdisciplinary research, furnish the center for shared equipment, as well as produce prototypes of new equipment.
The scientists set the following tasks: optical biopsy of human tissues for non-invasive diagnosis of socially significant diseases; spectral analysis of blood serum (including Lab-on-a-chip technologies) for the diagnosis of malignant neoplasms; development of methods and software for intelligent analysis of large biomedical data sets, including the use of neural networks, cloud technologies, Big Data; modeling of biomechanics of small joints, optimization of design features of endoprostheses; development of oncological endoprostheses (children's endoprostheses with a sliding mechanism, and the ankle endoprosthesis); magnetic pulse treatment of drugs (antibiotic therapy).
Dmitry Azarov, the Governor of the Samara Region, stressed the importance of inter-university cooperation, and noticed that it is actively developing in the region.
"Collaboration of universities already work today, at least, of those that are part of the REC. Let's try to describe what kind of laboratory it should be, see what is missing in the existing student laboratories, which are already operating on the principles of interuniversity exchange, and then make a decision".
Vladimir Bogatyryov, Rector of Samara National Research University :
"Development of new methods and materials, devices and equipment, hardware and software for medical science requires new-type researchers and technical specialists to be trained. Such specialists should be well aware of both the current problems facing the biological, chemical, and medical sciences, as well as advanced technologies in the field of physics and engineering. Establishing of the joint laboratory for biomedical systems will bring together specialists in the field of medicine, physics and engineering to find solutions to the problems at the intersection of these sciences. No doubt, we need to cooperate within the REC "Engineering of the Future". Today, it is impossible to implement large and complex projects by a single university. Cooperation is necessary when the competence of a laboratory is complemented with the competence of the other one".
Aleksandr Kolsanov, Rector of Samara State Medical University:
"Our two universities have been cooperating and solving together common problems for many years. Establishing of the Research and Education Center "Engineering of the Future" in the Samara Region, which has received the status of a world-level REC, gives us more opportunities for integration. Because it is interdisciplinary, complex projects aimed at commercialization, and creation of new solutions for technology transfer to the real sector of the economy, for working with industrial partners that are the step, I believe, will allow us to reach a new level of interaction".
For reference
Samara National Research University has accumulated the significant amount of competencies in the areas of future activities of the joint laboratory being created. So, one of the areas of the laboratory’s work will be development of devices and methods of optical biopsy of human tissues for non-invasive diagnosis of socially significant diseases. Researchers from of the University are already conducting successful studies in this area, in collaboration with their colleagues from Samara State Medical University. Findings of these studies have been published in Biophotonics Journal, one of the most authoritative scientific journals in the field of light – biological tissue interaction research, as well as in a number of other well-known scholarly journals. As the researchers intended, kidney failure and other pathologies can be detected in a matter of minutes, just by "shining" on the patient's skin with a special laser spectrum analyzer connected to the laptop. It detects changes in the biochemical composition of skin, which appear as inherent metabolic processes in the human body. In particular, the method we are developing can help assess the condition of patients with chronic kidney diseases. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, almost 10% of the world's population suffer from kidney diseases, and millions of people die from kidney pathology every year.
Another area of the laboratory's work will be introduction into healthcare practice the method for diagnosing cancer and other diseases by blood spectroscopy, developed by Samara researchers. Unlike laboratory methods of analysis, which take hours, this method allows you to analyze blood component composition in real time, actually in minutes.
The laboratory will also be engaged in the practical implementation of software for the intelligent analysis of large biomedical data sets, including the use of neural networks and cloud technologies. Earlier, researchers from Samara University, Samara State Medical University, and the Institute of Image Processing Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences implemented a joint project on the analysis of medical images. Today, almost every medical institution is furnished with equipment for conducting radiation diagnostic tests: X-ray, ECG, ultrasound, CT, MRI. With the annual increase in the volume of information, the today urgent issue is operational processing and interpretation of the data which the accuracy of diagnosis and efficiency of treatment depend on. This is particularly relevant in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Artificial intelligence should facilitate doctors’ work, and speed up the processing of the radiation research data array.
One more area of the laboratory's work will be the study of the potential use of the pulsed magnetic field in medicine and pharmacology. Previously, specialists of Samara University conducted experiments that resulted in discovering the increase in the antibacterial activity of penicillin after magnetic field exposure to the antibiotic. It was also found that the pulsed magnetic field increases the antiaggregational activity of pentoxifylline almost twice, that is, the blood viscosity decreases twice, which may significantly affect the process of thrombosis.
