BRICS Working Group on Biotechnology and Biomedicine, including Human Health and Neurosciences Meets in Moscow

The BRICS Working Group on Biotechnology and Biomedicine, including Human Health and Neurosciences met at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Moscow on 24–25 June.

Discussion centered around four main topics: the countries’ achievements in biotechnology and biomedicine, the BRICS neuroscience programme and other flagship projects, initiatives for co-operation in the development of agricultural biotechnology and healthy food technologies, and co-operation on the development of innovative medicines and vaccines.

A Consortium of scientists from Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, and India has brought together teams from close to 20 universities and research centres to work in this direction. The partners presented their joint programme of priority areas of fundamental and applied research and development in brain research and neuroscience for the next ten years.

Participants from Russian universities and research centres include Moscow State University, the Federal Centre for Brain and Neurotechnology at the Federal Medical-Biological Agency, the Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Skoltech. Key thrusts identified by the Consortium include research into the mechanisms underlying brain disorders, the creation of a biobank, the development of new invasive and non-invasive methods of brain research, methods for monitoring mental health objectively, and neurorehabilitation technologies.

Two large-scale projects were also presented: the Russian delegation presented joint research on mental health based on lipids as blood biomarkers for psychiatric disorders and a methodology developed at Skoltech for determining risk of disease. Meanwhile, the delegation from India presented a project on the application of neurotechnologies in rehabilitation with a special focus on neuromodulation and an analysis of rehabilitation processes and the collection of data related to improvements to health.

Co-operation on agricultural biotechnology received special attention. The partners considered the humanitarian and ethical sides of applying biotechnology to resolve issues with food supply. With more than 43% of the global population, BRICS has made the search for solutions of this nature a major focus of its food security strategy, calling for the creation of a BRICS agro-informatics platform for joint data collection and analysis and the opportunity to share innovations in fermentation and dehydration.

Meeting participants spoke out in support of the establishment of a BRICS Neuroscience Community and called for the establishment of a BRICS Neuroscience Programme and initiatives for co-operation in agricultural biotechnology while reaching an agreement for the adoption of the One Health Concept.

Working Group meeting events brought together leading industry experts, representatives of innovation support institutions (Skolkovo Foundation), domestic industry, in particular the Motorika Company, the ChemRar Pharmaceutical Company, the EFCO Group, and international participants. The meeting was held with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

The Roscongress Foundation manages the events of Russia’s BRICS Chairship.