On October, 24, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova officially opened the Preclinical Translational Research Centre at the Almazov National Medical Research Centre.
The opening ceremony was attended by:
- Mikhail Dubina, Chairman of the Healthcare Committee of St. Petersburg City Administration
- Evgeny Shlyakhto, Director General of the Almazov Centre
- Representatives of the Scientific and Educational Medical Cluster «Translational Medicine»
- Industry representatives.
During the ceremony, the new facilities of a new branch of the Institute of Experimental Medicine — the Preclinical and Translational Research Center — were presented: it is located on the area of 10,000 sq.m. and currently is the only centre of this kind in Russia.
Minister Veronika Skvortsova congratulated the team of the Almazov Centre and expressed conviction that the new structure has great future: “This center is an example of modern development of Biomedicine at all stages and in all processes that are important in the field”.
The unique research and innovation infrastructure includes SPF-class laboratories for rodents, areas large animals (pigs, monkeys) and aquatic kinds (fish, frogs, tailless amphibians), all of them excellently equipped with up-to-date laboratories and operating rooms. The Centre is built for all types of experimental studies of new drugs and biotechnological devices, their safety and efficacy, according to the international standards.
The Preclinical and Translational Research Center includes a number of research departments: Toxicology; Pathomorphology; Microbiology, Cellular Technology and Molecular Biology; Biochemical Research; Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology; Chemical-Analytical Research Group, as well as a Research Laboratory of Systemic Circulation.
In particular, during the tour, Director of the Centre Mikhail Galagudza mentioned that the Department of Biological Models is equipped to generate transgenic and knockout mice to study the specific activity of the drugs tested. The laboratory unit allows assessing the acute and chronic toxicity of drug compounds, their carcinogenicity, embryo and immunotoxicity, and monitoring drugs interaction with specific molecular targets.
The Preclinical and Translational Research Centre is a key link unit and in has the outmost importance for further development of the Scientific and Educational Medical Cluster «Translational Medicine» in 2017—2018.
Fundamental experimental research projects of the Center are aimed at the study of development mechanisms of socially significant diseases, introduction of new medical technologies into clinical practice and improvement of the quality of prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
According to the opinion of the Director General of the Almazov National Medical Research Centre Professor Evgeny Shlyakhto, the cooperation of the researchers and physicians will make it possible to evaluate the conducted studies in terms of their relevance and prospects. Thus, the new division of the Almazov Centre will become a platform for an effective dialogue between science and practical health, as well as for partnership between the state and business. In addition, the activities of the Preclinical and Translational Research Centre will contribute to the educational and training programmes meant for the future specialists in the field of translational medicine.
