Acting Director of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, President of the Russian Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Society, academician Alexander Gabibov and the head of the Pharmacology Department at Yale University, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the RAS, member of the International Advisory Board of Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the RAS Joseph Schlessinger on behalf of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded the Lomonosov Great Gold Medal to the laureate of 2016, Professor at Yale University, a member of the International Advisory Board of Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, Nobel Prize laureate Sidney Altman. Professor Altman has received the award "for outstanding contribution to the field of biochemistry of nucleic acids, the discovery of the catalytic activity of the nucleic acids and the creation of new biologically active substances."

The Joint Life Sciences Forum, including the International Scientific Conference in bioorganic chemistry "XII conference dedicated to the Memory of Academician Yuri A. Ovchinnikov" and the VIII Russian Symposium "Proteins and Peptides" with a Young Scientists Competition, was held at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS at 18-22 September, 2017. The leading foreign experts who visited the forum named it one of the main scientific events in the field of Life Sciences in the world in this year.

Laboratory of Biological Tests of the Branch of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (BICh) received an order from a European company for preclinical animal studies, which will be conducted in accordance with world standards. Thus, for the first time, Russia will export high-tech services such as pre-clinical research for foreign countries.

 Russian scientists together with foreign colleagues extended the shine time of fluorescent label in live cells. Light is emitted longer due to the continuous exchange of fluorogenic dyes interacting with special protein labels. The method which was described in the Chemical Science journal will simplify the live cells staining and provide new opportunities for research. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation.

Researchers of the IBCh RAS and the Federal Research and Clinical center of Physical-Chemical Medicine of FMBA of Russia found that alternative splicing of messenger RNAs makes a non-significant contribution to the plant cell proteome diversity. The results have been published in the Scientific Reports journal.

Scientists from the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS (IBCh RAS) with the participation of colleagues from the Institute of Human Morphology of RAMS and the Pirogov RSMU found that the enzyme phospholipase A2 from the Vipera nikolskii venom is able to adhere to lipid membranes (prototypes of cell membranes) and cause their aggregation, even if the activity of enzyme is specifically blocked. It turned out that this is due to the presence of two binding sites in the enzyme structure. Published in the journal Toxicon the results of the work help to understand how the multicomponent snakes’ venoms work.

From 7 to 11 May the fourth international conference on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR 2017) was held on the island of Crete (Greece) in which scientists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS took part. Together with other leading experts in the field of neurobiology associated with cholinergic transmission, they discussed the genetic, molecular, structural and cellular aspects of research and told what key trends in the development of this scientific area are actively supported now.

Researcher from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with their colleagues have developed a method for stimulating neurons with infrared radiation. They implemented in mice neurons snake proteins that react to temperature – thermoreceptors. Published in Nature Communications journal results will help non-invasive stimulate neural networks in the deep layers of tissues in the body, as well as control the activity of other types of cells in living systems. In the future, it can help in the therapy of various nervous system diseases.

Researchers from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS together with their colleagues have isolated the analgesic peptides Ms9a-1 and Ueq 12-1 from sea anemones, one of the most ancient predators on the planet. The ability of these substances to selectively enhance the activity of TRPA1 receptor opens up new opportunities for basic research and serves as a basis for the painkillers  and anti-inflammatory drugs development. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, and the results were published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Toxins.

Researchers at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBCh RAS), the Institute of Biophysics of the Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center SB RAS (IBP SB RAS) and the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, together with colleagues from Brazil and Japan, have drawn even closer to finally unveiling the secret of the mechanism that mushrooms use to glow. They successfully determined the structure of the molecule of oxyluciferin, a product of the luminescence reaction, from fungi (in this case, mushrooms were used), and also synthesized several artificial replicas of luciferin, which emit light of different colors. This groundbreaking work was funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, RSF, and the results published in the journal Science Advances.