Maria Poptsova

Over three days, more than 300 conference participants attended workshops, seminars, sections and a poster session. During panel discussions, experts deliberated on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and considered collaborative initiatives between academic institutions and industry to advance AI development through megaprojects.

The strategic session ‘Development of Cardiodiagnostic Products: From Sequencing to Medical Practice’ was recently held at HSE University. The event focused on identifying the market requirements for technology and products developed in the field of genetic testing for cardiovascular diseases.

On September 28-29, the International Laboratory of Bioinformatics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics together with the Scientific and Educational Center of the Medical Institute of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra "Surgut State University" for the purpose of implementing the project "Mirror Laboratories" held a sectional session "Cardiovascular continuum: from ACS to HNS"

One of the winning projects of a competition held by HSE University’s Mirror Laboratories last June focuses on the use of machine learning technologies to predict the outcomes of acute coronary syndrome. It is implemented by HSE University’s International Laboratory of Bioinformatics together with the Research and Educational Centre of the Medical Institute at Surgut State University. Maria Poptsova, Head of the International Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Associate Professor at HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science, talks about how this joint project originated, how it will help patients, and how work to implement it will be organised.

On September 4-5, the annual Interdisciplinary Forum “Cardiogenetics and Bioinformatics: Realities 2023” was held at the Higher School of Economics.

The Continuing Professional Development Centre of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science has recently hosted the summer school 'Cardiogenetics: From Sequencing to Constructing a Cardio Panel'. The school programme was co-organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Analytical Instrumentation and Institute of Spectroscopy and the Syntol company.

On August 28–30, HSE University’s Faculty of Computer Science held the 4th Summer School on Machine Learning in Bioinformatics. This year, 670 people registered for the event, and over 300 visited in person. The programme included lectures and seminars on various spheres of bioinformatics: applied bioinformatics and the bioinformatics of DNA, RNA, and proteins; elementary genomics; modern methods of data analysis and molecular biology. The lectures were complemented by practical tasks aimed at different levels of knowledge.

Researchers at the HSE Artificial Intelligence Centre have created software for predicting the location of elements of the human genome. The scientists used deep learning methods based on complex data on various human molecular components. The research followed the objectives of the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ federal project of the ‘Digital Economy’ national project.

This year, HSE University held the Mirror Laboratories project contest for the fourth time. A total of 19 applications were submitted to the contest from 16 HSE University research departments partnered with 16 organisations from 14 Russian regions. Following the contest results, 10 research projects received support.

Annual All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference and 63rd session of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMITSK im. ak. E.I. Chazov" of the Ministry of Health of Russia which was held at the Chazov Center on June 6-8, 2023

Life Science Alliance published an article "Open Access Z-flipon variants reveal the many roles of Z-DNA and Z-RNA in health and disease" 

Article published in the International Journal of Molecular Science

The long-awaited publication of the chapter on DeepZ by M. Poptsova and N. Beknazarov was published in the book "Z-DNA" by Kyeong Kim Kim, Vinod Kumar Subramani

On 16–20 February the student conference school Information Technologies and Systems. Bioinformatics took place. More than 100 students from HSE University, Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Skoltech, MSU, MIPT took part in it.

Konstantin Burkin and Alexander Kirdeev, research interns at the International Laboratory of Bioinformatics, won the competition for young scientists' research projects on digital technologies and transformation. For the 2023 year implementation, this project became part of the strategic work "Digital Transformation: Technologies, Impact, Efficiency".

On January 30-31, 2023, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology hosted the International Conference "Data Analysis, Optimization and their Applications"

The world around us through the eyes of a scientist

The International Laboratory of Bioinformatics participated in the School for young scientists "Genetics and Epigenetics: Mechanisms, Structure, Function" which was held at the Biology Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University from October 29 to 30, 2022.

There has been a quantum leap in the creation of scientific zoom collaborations around the world.

Between August 23rd and 25th, the HSE Faculty of Computer Science held its annual summer school on machine learning in bioinformatics. After two years of being held online, the school returned to an offline format for this year. Over three days, more than 120 participants attended lectures and seminars by leading experts in the field from institutions such as HSE University, Skoltech, AIRI, MSU, MIPT, Genotek, and Sber Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

On September 2, the second event of the consortium "Genetics of Cardiovascular Diseases" — an interdisciplinary forum "Cardiogenetics and Bioinformatics: Realities of 2022" — was held at the Higher School of Economics, which continued the work of the consortium between the organizations that are part of the consortium. The forum was attended by heads and representatives of scientific centers and institutes from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, and Surgut.

On May 25, 2022, an online conference ABZ2022 was held at the Faculty of Computer Science.

A team of researchers that includes experts from the International Laboratory of Bioinformatics of the Faculty of Computer Science, HSE University has presented a new way to fight melanoma. The scientists discovered that a form of DNA molecule entering cancer cells is able to induce an immune response similar to the body's response to a virus. As a result, the cells that support tumour growth are killed and the patient begins to respond to anti-cancer therapy again. The results of the study have been published in the Nature.

The article "ADAR1 masks the cancer immunotherapeutic promise of ZBP1-driven necroptosis" by Alexander Fedorov, Nazar Beknazarov, Alan Herbert, and Maria Poptsova was published in Nature on May 25, 2022.

The International Laboratory of Bioinformatics participated in the Russian Congress on Clinical Pharmacogenomics in Moscow on February 4-5, 2022.

The AI Community conference, which was held online, was attended by leading international and Russian experts in the field of AI, as well as business representatives.

Mark Garnitsky, a student of the Data Analysis in Biology and Medicine master's programme is studying for one year at Ghent University in Belgium. We asked Mark to tell us about his story at the Faculty of Computer Science, his academic mobility experience and the social life during the pandemic.

On December 2, 2021, the First International Forum of Genomic and Biomedical Technologies "From birth to active longevity" was inaugurated at Surgut State University with the participation of the governor of Yugra Natalia Komarova, as well as the director of the District Department of Education and Youth Policy Alexey Drenin. Its organizers are the government of the district, the Ugra Development Fund and Surgut State University.

In early September, the first event of the Genetics of Cardiovascular Diseases consortium - an interdisciplinary forum "Cardiogenetics and Bioinformatics: Realities 2021" - was held at HSE University. The forum marked the start of the consortium after signing an agreement on scientific cooperation between the participating organizations. The forum was attended by heads and representatives of scientific centres and institutes from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Arkhangelsk, Tyumen and Surgut.

The Genetics of Cardiovascular Diseases Consortium, the first of this kind in Russia, was unveiled at HSE University at Cardiogenetics and Bioinformatics: 2021 Realities, an interdisciplinary forum. The consortium aims to compile a centralized and complete catalogue of the Russian population’s genomic mutations.

The second international Summer School on Machine Learning in Bioinformatics took place on August 23–27. This year’s school featured 533 participants from 53 countries.

The Moscow Conference on Computational Molecular Biology (MCCMB) took place on 07/30/2021 - 08/02/2021

The ABZ 2021 Meeting was held virtually on May 19, 2021, at the Faculty. The first of its kind, this international conference gathered more than 200 scientists from many disciplines to specifically address progress in research involving Z-DNA and Z-RNA. 

The second issue of 2021 presents interviews about knowledge production and exchange from various angles.

On January 25, 2021, an International Laboratory of Bioinformatics opened at the Faculty of Computer Science. The main goal of the laboratory is to determine the role of alternative DNA structures in the genome.

On February 2, 2021 an online round table "Genetics of cardiovascular diseases" was held. It was dedicated to the genetics of cardiovascular diseases, the formation of a consortium in this research area and preparations for the signing of an agreement on scientific cooperation. 

Maria Poptsova, head of the International Laboratory of Bioinformatics and associate professor of the Big Data and Information Retrieval School, spoke at the AI Journey 2020 conference on artificial intelligence with a presentation “Deep Learning in Genomics”.

HSE scientists have proposed a way to improve the accuracy of finding Z-DNA, or DNA regions that are twisted to the left instead of to the right. To do this, they used neural networks and a dataset of more than 30,000 experiments conducted by different laboratories around the world. Details of the study are published in Scientific Reports.

This year’s HSE competition for the creation of international laboratories which considered proposals for the period of January 1, 2021 – December 21, 2023, was conducted from June 15 to December 15, 2020.

Laboratory of Bioinformatics organised the first international summer school in bioinformatics. The school was held online on August 24-28.

Head of the lab Maria Poptsova - guest on the radio station "Mayak"

This year, Russia’s largest science and technology festival, Geek Picnic, was held online for the first time. Despite the new format, the festival programme included all of the event’s usual key features: expert lectures, workshops, competitions, and opportunities to socialize and network with fellow tech and science enthusiasts. HSE University once again served as the festival’s content partner.

Head of the lab Maria Poptsova give a lecture at Geek Picnic 2020

Head of the lab Maria Poptsova - participant and moderator of the round table at the Winter School of Young Scientists and Doctors on Pharmacogenetics and Personalized Therapy

Head of the lab Maria Poptsova give a lecture at the Computer Science Winter School for Graduate Students

Head of the laboratory Maria Poptsova - congress co-chair

Head of the lab Maria Poptsova is a lecturer on University Saturdays

Head of the laboratory Maria Poptsova - participant of the seminar

Laboratory staff - conference participants

Laboratory staff - conference participants

Сancer Сells Will Become Vulnerable

On November 26, the HSE Faculty of Computer Science held the ‘IT Girls Night’ for the fifth time. This year the event was organized within the University of London’s campaign ‘Worldwide Conversation on Women’s Higher Education and Equality in the Workplace’. This campaign celebrates 150 years since the University of London opened up its ‘Special Examinations for Women’, the first university-level examinations offered for women in the UK. Ten years later, this step led to the University of London becoming the first institution of higher education in the UK to open up full degrees for women.

This year, HSE has supported the founding of 10 new Research and Teaching Laboratories (RTLs) in various fields, from cognitive psychology and computer modeling, to international justice and economics of sports.