June, 2-6, 2014 the VIII international symposium "Molecular mobility and order in polymer systems" was held in St. Petersburg. The symposium was attended by more than 300 scientists from around the world, specializing in the scope of physics and chemistry of polymeric materials, as well as by experts in the scope of bioengineering and biotechnology. The symposium is organized every three years by the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds (RAS). In 2014 the ITMO University for the first time co-hosted the one of the world's largest industry events.
Bioengineering is a perspectivescope of the modern science and industrial production. In addition to chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics information technology is actively applied in this scope. It makesthis industry interesting for the ITMO University as for one of the Russian IT-education leaders.Considering the demand of modern bioengineering developments the International scientific and research institute of Bioengineering was created in the University at the Department of Information Technologies in the Fuel and Energy Complex. Two laboratories are already workingand another twowill be openedthis year. Materials, developed by the staff and students of the ITMO University, are used in the medicine, pharmacy, biology, and other high-tech industries.
During the symposium, which took place in early June in St. Petersburg, the world's leading experts have discussed the key issues in the scope of the bioengineering and biotechnology: the conformation and properties of macromolecules complex architecture; structure and properties of polymer brushes and "hairy" nanoparticles; self-ordering of macromolecules; structure and properties of complex consisting of polymers and nanoparticles or polymers and biological objects; polymer networks and connections. Many plenary sessions were devoted to quantum-mechanical calculations and structural organization of polymers, as well as to issues of theoretical chemistry of polymers.
During the plenary sessions of the symposium well-known Russian and foreign scientists madereports: Alexey Khokhlov, the head of the Department of Polymer and Crystal Physicsof theFaculty of Physics of the Moscow State University, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexander Ozerin, the director of the Institute of Synthetic Polymeric Materials of RAS; Alexander Kabanov, the director of the Center for nanotechnology drug delivery, co-director of the Carolina Institute For NanoMedicine (USA); Markus Muller, Professor of the Institute of theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen (Germany) and many others.
Researchers at the ITMO University actively participated in the meetings and poster sessions of the symposium. The great interest among the participants was aroused by the report "Computer calculation of a new type of branched peptides - lysine dendrimers", presented by Professor Igor Neelov, under whose leadership scientific direction on the modeling of polymers and biopolymers at the Department of Information Technologies in the Fuel and Energy Complex within the framework of the activities of the International scientific and research institute of Bioengineering actively developed.
"To become a co-organizer of the symposium is a great success for the ITMO University. This is one of the most famous events in the scope of modeling of biological systems and biopolymers. A vivid confirmation of this is the large number of well-known foreign scientists in the number of plenary speakers. In the program of the next conference we plan to include a custom section dedicated not only to modeling and to the materials created in bioengineering. This will allow the symposium to acquire practical nature, and the University will have a new platform for discussing important for us scientific direction", - Maya Uspenskaya, the head of the International scientific and research institute of Bioengineering, said.
Read more about activities of the Department of Information Technologies in the Fuel and Energy Complexand International scientific and research institute of Bioengineering here http://kittek.iff.ifmo.ru/.