On 21 November there were announced the results of the state grant contest aimed to support research conducted by leading scientists in Russian universities, research centres, and governmental research centres. This grant is the most important and prestigious one of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
Saratov University has gained the victory with the project titled the Discovery of Fundamental Sleep Mechanisms to Be Used in Breakthrough Technologies of Neuro Rehabilitation Medicine. Its goals are to establish a world-class laboratory to study the phenomenon of toxin clearing of brain tissue when we sleep and to develop special portable smartdevices to control that process to make breakthrough discoveries in neuro rehabilitation medicine.
Due to the project the quality of life of the patients, including new-born babies, who are in need of rehabilitation, will be improved, the expenses of the patients and hospitals will increase, the nation health standards will become sustainable, and top brands will appear in the Russian market of smart portable devices.
The leading researcher will become Thomas Penzel, a world-class scientist who focuses on sleep physiology. Also he is Scientific Chair of the Interdisciplinary Center of Sleep Medicine in the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Besides, the project will be implemented by Director of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG), the University of Birginia, Jonathan Kipnis and a representative of Harvard Medical School, Director of the Epilepsy Center, and a world-known leading neonatal and pediatric neurosurgeon Joseph Madsen. The research group will be headed by the leading scientist of biophysical research in Humboldt University Berlin, Head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Professor of Saratov University Jürgen Kurths.
The Russian members of the group will include the scientists led by Chair of the Department of Human and Animal Physiology SSU Professor Oksana V. Semyachkina-Glushkovskaya.
It should be noted that Saratov University has won in the grant contests which support projects headed by leading researchers for the three times. Today there are a few world-class laboratories in SSU established within the megagrant projects, namely the Metamaterials Based on Photonic, Phononic, Plasmonic, and Magnonic Crystals and Their Usage in UHF Radioelectronics and Photonics, the Remote Controlled Nano-Structured Systems Used for Drug Delivery and Diagnostics, the Photo Acoustic Technologies Used for Early Theranostics of Metastatic Tumors ones.
