Bashkortostan and the United Kingdom are planning to cooperate in the field of biotechnology

Promising areas of cooperation in the field of biotechnology were identified by members of the Russian- British round table conference in Ufa on Wednesday.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government RB Dmitry Sharonov, bilateral relations in the field of biotechnology "are on a quite low level" but have great prospects.

British Consul General in Yekaterinburg Neil Semple outlined a number of issues of mutual interest. Among them there is a production of pharmaceuticals, synthetic biology and regenerative medicine. In particular, according to the Consul General, an active research work in the field of synthetic biology is conducted in the UK - the government is ready to fund research in the amount of 20 billion pounds.

Bashkortostan scientists acquainted the guests with the main areas of work in the field of biotechnology. According to Elsa Khusnutdinova, the head of Department of Genomics and Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory of the Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics of Ufa Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, academic institutions of the republic carry out molecular- genetic studies of inherited and multifactorial diseases.

As explained by Vener Vakhitov, the director of Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Ufa Science Centre RAS, works are conducted to obtain transgenic plants capable of accumulating heavy metals in Bashkiria. He outlined the creation of diagnosis and prevention systems of infections that are dangerous for Bashkortostan, such as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome among the most important areas of research.

The roundtable conference participants noted that in number of areas republican scientists successfully cooperated with scientific community from Germany, France and the United States. It was decided to establish productive scientific relations between Bashkortostan and Germany.