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The project entitled the "Practical Use of the Ions of Skulachev" is for the creation and marketing of new biomedical technologies and drugs in Russia and abroad.
The project is based on the research of Academician V.P. Skulachev, who devised a fundamentally new form of biotechnology called mitotechnology, which targets the cell electro stations - the mitochondria, in which organelles develop the largest quantity of active forms of oxygen - which is one of the causes of ageing. In order to combat age-related diseases, a new class of mitotechnological substances called SkQ substances, which had already proved effective at nanomolar level, was established.
This unique project to develop mitotechnological drugs already involves more than 300 scientists in 50 groups from more than 35 research centers in Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and the United States. Most of the work is being carried out at the A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Research indicates that SkQ substances are able to delay more than 20 symptoms of ageing, among them eye disease, memory loss, cardiovascular diseases, ageing of the reproductive system, susceptibility to oncological diseases and the like. Clinical tests are currently being performed on drugs to treat age-related eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, retinal dystrophy and some others.
The company SmartWhisker (formerly WhiskerProbes) was founded under the auspices of the Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences. The Institute devised a method for growing crystals that was used over a period of four years as the basis for developing the commercial production of high aspect ratio silicon tip AFM probes. The technology resulted in the creation of unique probes, combining sharpness and high aspect ratio.
SmartWhisker technology has the following key advantages:
- very small apex angle
- curvature radius of 1-3 nanometers
- combination of sharpness and enhanced apex angle
- conical rather than razor tip.
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