Search by tag «Microorganisms» 5 results

• From Reindeer Herders to Treating Diseases: Bioinformatician Anna Popenko on Studying Gut Microbiome

  Gut microbiome is the largest of its kind in the human body, and its microorganisms are directly connected to the appearance and development of many diseases. We talked to ITMO Fellow and bioinformatician Anna Popenko about why microbiome research is important and how it can be beneficial. At ITMO, Dr. Popenko heads the group studying the connection between gut microbiome, the environment a person lives in, and their health.

  27.03.2024

• Geneticist Bayazit Yunusbayev On How Genetics Can Help Fight Autoimmune Diseases

  For several years Bayazit Yunusbayev had been studying the mechanisms behind the autoimmune and allergic diseases at the University of Tartu (Estonia), and last year he joined ITMO’s SCAMT Institute, where he heads the Evolutionary Biomedicine group, to continue with his research. Bayazit Yunusbayev came to the university as part of the ITMO Fellowship & Professorship program that allows researchers to work at the university for several years. Read on to learn more about gene mutations responsible for immune system adaptation and discover other areas studied by the lab. 

  17.03.2022

• Microrevolution: On Home-Made Fermentation in the Modern World

  Home-made fermented foods and drinks, such as sauerkraut and mushroom tea, have been popular in Russia for the longest time and nowadays, there seems to be a new wave of interest in this topic among young people. In today’s article, we discuss this topic together with Valeriia Sofina, author of the Microrevolucion blog on fermentation.

  17.08.2021

• Picture of the Week: Brettanomyces Pseudomycelium

  The title image shows a genus of yeast called Brettanomyces demonstrating the ability to form pseudomycelium in response to environmental changes. The students and staff of ITMO’s Faculty of Biotechnologies cultivate and study yeasts to, inter alia, produce β-glucans known for their anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects.

  05.04.2021

• Research on Fairy Circles in Africa Will Benefit Agriculture

  In deserts of Namibia, there are totally lifeless patches of land where nothing grows. Clearly seen among the surrounding grass and bush, they are called "fairy circles" or "footprints of god". Scientists have several theories of how they came to be, yet all of them are yet to be proved. One theory is that these circles appear because of specific compounds that are released by the euphorbia plant. ITMO's Master's students who work under the guidance of research officers of the laboratory of Technical Microbiology of the All-Russian Research Institute for Agricultural Microbiology believe this theory to be correct. According to them, research on fairy circles can help create new ecologic bio-herbicides.

  23.03.2017