GENETICIST SHUKHRAT MITALIPOV, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON: I AM GLAD TO JOIN THE KAZNU TEAM

Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, Professor of the US Stem Cell Center Shukhrat Mitalipov delivered a leadership lecture on "New technologies in modern Embryology and Genetics" at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. The event, organized by the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology of KazNU brought together representatives from various research institutes and research centers of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The lecture was attended by university leaders, faculty members and students of the Faculties of Biology and Biotechnology, Chemistry and Chemical Technologies, Medicine and Healthcare, as well as scientists of the JSC Scientific Center for Anti-Infectious Medications "Research Institute of Biological Safety Problems", the Institute of Genetics and Physiology, the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. M.A. Aitkhozhina, Research and Production Center of Microbiology and Virology, etc. 

The leadership lecture of one of the most influential scientists in the world, who heads the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, the pioneer of many studies on nuclear transplantation, Shukhrat Mitalipov, aroused great interest for a reason. Shukhrat Mitalipov is a native of Kazakhstan, who graduated from the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, and then completed postgraduate studies at the Medical and Genetic Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and managed to achieve amazing results in science.

Shukhrat Mitalipov and his sister Maya have developed a method of treating hereditary diseases by replacing defective maternal DNA with healthy donor DNA. In fact, they were the first to "edit" the genome of a human embryo. Earlier, it was in the laboratory of the Oregon Health University that the method of conception of a "child from three parents" was first tested, which also allows you to get rid of some genetic diseases.

The Guest of honor was welcomed by the Chairman of the Board – Rector of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Zhanseit Tuimebayev. Noting the merits of the first scientist who managed to clone primates, the head of the university introduced Shukhrat Mitalipov to the participants and stressed: "The organization of leadership lectures of successful people makes it possible for students and young scientists of our university to communicate with world-famous, recognized scientists, public figures, writers and entrepreneurs of our republic. This communication allows students to get first-hand information about the specifics of their chosen specialty, and also inspires them for further self-development and building a successful career."

Professor Shukhrat Mitalipov entered the top-10 of the world's major scientists last year. Rector shared that he agreed with his offer to become a professor at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. “Professor Shukhrat Muzaparovich will give lectures to our students and we have also agreed to create a Kazakh-American joint research center,” the rector of KazNU said.

At the beginning of the lecture, the speaker thanked the university management for the invitation and for the opportunity to join the university staff. He introduced me to Oregon State University, where he currently works:

"I have been living in the USA since 1995. Currently, I am the director of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the University of Oregon. This is a medical university, considered one of the largest enterprises in the state of Oregon. We have more than 20 thousand employees. In general, this is a complex that includes approximately half of all hospitals in the state. In addition, there is a faculty that trains doctors. And the third part of the complex is a number of research institutes and research centers. We created one of the research centers in 2010, which is mainly engaged in the development of gene cell therapy, specifically on germ cells. Therefore, we were singled out separately, and we report directly to the president of the university. Our Center includes 6 laboratories and an IVF clinic. Our main focus is the reprogramming of somatic cells, gametes and cell embryos. This is an interesting direction, as you know, there are about 230 types of different somatic cells in our body. When the body ages or from diseases, some types of cells, neurons or cardiomyocytes die off. Unfortunately, they are not being restored. That is, we are born with neurons, but we will not be able to live with the cells we were born with until the end of our lives. Therefore, if there is some kind of change in the body, as a rule, cells die in the brain, the neural system, and there are no new ones to replace them. But we have other types of cells, such as skin or blood cells, which are constantly being restored. In this regard, there is an idea that we can reprogram, for example, blood ingots as neurons, that is, we change their phonotypes from one to another. This direction is called reprogramming."

During the lecture the professor shared in detail about his projects and ongoing research. The lecture, dedicated to new technologies and achievements in modern embryology and genetics, contained a lot of new, useful information about the main trends in medical gene editing of the human germ line, listed possible problems and ways to solve them.

“My research areas are Reprogramming of human somatic cells into gametes and embryonic stem cells, Cell therapy of gametes and embryos (a new generation of IVF), Gene therapy of hereditary diseases. Basically, we create haploid eggs from skin cells, then reprogram somatic cells, for example, we introduce skin cells into gametes, that is, either into acytes or into the sperm of a patient who does not have germ cells. These may be people who, after chemotherapy or with age-related changes cannot have their own children. In such cases, we can do an experiment using their gametes. The main initial cell is the skin cell. We have subcellular therapy, these are new types of IVF. In vitro fertilization was invented a long time ago, almost 50 years have passed. But it does not treat infertile couples who have an anatomical problem, for example, gametes and spermatozoa do not occur in the body due to obstruction. But few suffer from this. Most couples who do not have children do not have full-fledged gametes or they do not exist at all. In this case, IVF does not help, because IVF requires full-fledged scales of both parents.

We are trying to reprogram the gametes in the egg cell. This is done quite simply, in this case, an acyte is taken from a donor, the nucleus is extracted from there, only the cytoplasm remains, and we can transfer the nucleus of the skin cell there. In this case, it is an artificial egg cell, but it is actually full-fledged, and as we know, if it is transferred to cells, it turns out a cloned embryo. This showed that it is possible to directly reprogram any cell of the body, it can be the skin or anything else that is available, we introduce into the egg cell. And then she can become an embryo. All our somatic cells are diploid, therefore we cannot fertilize such an acyte, we activate them without spermatozoa. The genome that came from the skin without change becomes an embryo identical to the donor from where it was taken. This embryo can be transplanted into animals, get offspring. You know, it started with a clone of Dolly, then this experiment was done on mice, on monkeys. Now such an experiment has been done on more than 30 species of animals. Unfortunately, this technology is not very suitable for humans, because people want to have a normal child, not a cloned one.

We have another direction with the use of cloned embryos. We introduced this technology in 2007. Here the question was "is it possible to replace the cytoplasm in the egg cell if the cytoplasm is defective?" basically, infertility occurs due to poor quality of the cytoplasm during the maturation of the egg cell. To date, in IVF clinics this problem is solved at the expense of donor eggs. Here, the mother does not act as a genetic participant, since the child will be from the father and from the donor. Therefore, the majority of mothers do not want to carry someone else's child, they want their own. And our technology helps them to have identical offspring, since we only change the cytoplasm, and the nucleus remains. This is called an MRI for short. This technology has already been introduced in clinics," the lecturer said.

Further, the scientist spoke about the treatment of human genetic diseases. The bulk of genetic diseases are inherited from parents and most of them are incurable. According to the American scientist, somatic gene therapy is ineffective: it's too late, so millions of mutant cells need to be corrected. To do this, it is necessary to prevent the transmission of mutations by biopsy and to carry out gene therapy in gametes or embryos.

"We have a great future to use IVF in order to treat hereditary diseases. As you know, more than 10 thousand of our genes carry mutations that cause diseases. On earth, more than a billion people are either carriers or are sick at the genetic level. The problem is that parents do not pass on genetic diseases to their descendants. We believe that through IVF we will be able to prevent the transmission of the disease of form mutations. To do this, we need access to the genome. Today there is a selection of embryos in which there is no mutation." 

The widespread introduction of the achievements of genetics in all branches of biology requires the availability of qualified specialists. All this testifies to the importance of high-quality training of specialists. At the end of his speech, the lecturer expressed his intention to introduce the scientists from his team to the professors of KazNU in order to exchange experience. Thus, he stressed that he is ready to develop joint programs and conduct research.

Press Service of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University