The winners of the Challenge Prize organized a tour of Russia to promote science

Russian scientists and laureates of the national Challenge Award, which is awarded for unique research and inventions, went on a tour of Russia to share cutting-edge developments in the scientific field. This was reported by a correspondent of Izvestia on April 23.

It is noted that the new format, a scientific roadshow, was invented by the organizers of the Challenge Award. The country tour was created to tell students about advanced developments at leading regional universities.

"The scientific Oscar has two main criteria. Firstly, the development will have to change the life of mankind for the better, and secondly, its implementation will take no more than ten years," correspondent Natalia Oskerko said.

At the moment, energy and medicine are considered "breakthrough" areas. For example, Valery Tuchin, Doctor of Physico-mathematical Sciences, winner of the national prize in the nomination "Scientist of the Year", learned how to scan human tissues. With the help of a special solution on the skin, you can see blood circulation abnormalities, the effect of medications and melanoma.

"In this case, these stripes are melanoma cells that we don't see at first, and then, after 20 minutes, we begin to distinguish. That is, we have the opportunity, after optical illumination of the surface tissues, to see how the vessels that feed this tumor are formed," explained Tuchin.

Sergey Taskaev, Doctor of Physico-Mathematical Sciences, winner of the national award in the Engineering Solution nomination, spoke about the creation of an installation for borneutron capture therapy, which destroys tumor cells without harm to the patient's health.

"It is enough to accumulate boron in the tumor, then irradiate the neutron flux. The neutrons themselves will find this boron, it will be captured by them, a nuclear reaction will occur with a large release in the cell that contained the boron nucleus, and this cell will die," he shared.

In addition, drugs for the prevention of cancer and thrombosis are being tested for the first time. For example, scientist Leonid Ferstat has synthesized fundamentally new organic substances based on nitrogen-oxygen compounds that can destroy a tumor from the inside.

"There is such a mechanism of apoptosis, the programmed death of a cancer cell. The substance enters and starts this cycle directly into the cancerous tumor. The cells have a program that tells them it's time for them to die, and so our tumor is dying," Ferstatt explained.

Currently, the Challenge roadshow has been held in Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg, followed by meetings in Nizhny Novgorod and Saratov.

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The winners of the Future Technologies Award were named in Moscow

Last December, a solemn ceremony of awarding the laureates of the National Prize in the field of Future Technologies "Challenge" took place at the Moscow Manege. The event opened with a greeting from Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the same time, the best researchers were selected in five nominations: four Russian and one international. The winners in each category received 11 million rubles. In 2024, the competition received about 600 applications, including from candidates from 33 countries.