Principle theme

14 February 2012

Biological laboratory for Siberia

A biological laboratory of world class is to be established in Siberia, and will be headed by Osamu Shimomura, a Nobel Prize Laureate from the U.S. The project is made possible by a government grant, which was won by specialists of the Siberian Federal University  for their work in bioluminescence. 

Bioluminescence studies the ability of living organisms to emit lite. The scholars from Krasnoyarsk have been working in this area for over 30 years, and have been applying their knowledge quite successfully. They have a collection of more than 700 specimens of light emitting bacteria. The studying of the mechanism of light emission in bacteria is of both scientific and applied interest, says Professor Valentina Kratasyuk, Head of the biophysics Department at the Siberian Federal University.

“We study light emitting organisms at all stages of their  lives. They enable us to witness different processes. We have created a system for  analyzing the  quality of water,and the ecological service has a good instrument for determining the level of toxins in the environment, because the speed of  analysis has increased several fold. Bioluminescence is also being used in other areas”, Professor Katasyuk said.

The system of analysis created by biologists, using the bioluminescence of  organisms is  helping in disease  diagnosis, to monitor the effect of medicines  on the human organism, help to detect harmful substances in water, air, and food.

Biologists  are continuing the search for a method for determining the content of mercury in the atmosphere, the pesence of  which can  lead to the birth of sick children. The scientists at the Siberian Federal University recently won 110 million rubles in government grants, which will be spent on establishing the above mentioned laboratory in Krasnoyarsk.

“Osamu Shimomura has agreed to head the laboratory because he believes that Krasnoyarsk is blessed with the largest  and powerful team of scientists studying bioluminescence. For him, it is important that the scholars in the region are  studying both applied and fundamental mechanisms of light  emitting bacteria”, Professor Kratasyuk  said. 

english.ruvr.ru

Back to the topic of the day