psubiologists

Fancy Arctic and Subarctic Exploration? Bio-Engineering? Science Management?

04.03.2022 / , , , ,

The Faculty of Biology at Perm State University will expand the range of educational disciplines in 2022.

Bachelor students will be able to study the Microbial and Cellular Technologies both in Russian and English. The course includes the study of enzymes, nucleic acids, biopolymers, metabolites and biosynthetic products – allowing its graduates to become biotechnologists or genetic bioengineers.

Two more programs are being opened in Pedagogical Education – “Biology” and “Biology and Physical Education”, providing methodology of individual learning. The Program graduates will be able to work both in educational institutions and sports clubs – as teachers of biology and physical education.

MSci students in Living Systems of the Arctic and Subarctic will gain knowledge on fundamentals of bio-systems of natural areas, at all levels of wildlife. The students will master environmental monitoring in the Arctic zone, GIS technologies and modern mathematical data processing tools.

The MSci distance learning course “Ecological Expertise and State Supervision in Land Use” will allow lto examine land resources, and estimate related reclamation activities. Upon completion, the graduates will be able to measure and perform restoration and protection of soil resources.

Modern Biology Education is another new distance learning profile. Through the course, the students will learn to design educational programs in biology, and run analytics of scientific research – allowing them to further work at scientific and educational centers, or related administrative institutions.

“About 70% of our graduates tend to be employed the same graduation year. The skills gained in class and lab projects help them to get in the leading profile institutes of the Academy of Sciences, resource extraction and processing enterprises,”

explains Andrey Elkin, Dean of the Faculty of Biology, PSU.

PSU Scholars Become Guest Editors of Microorganisms Journal

10.01.2022 / , , , , , , , , , ,

Which knowledge, gained through university studies, will be required by your future employee? In most fields of natural production – like oil, gas or minerals’ extraction and processing, a company is interested in compliance with the international norms of environmental protection. Environment degradation makes it extremely useful to search for prevention or compensation of anthropogenic pollution. Cleaning the pollutants out of the biosphere remains a constant challenge for humanity.

The scholars from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, PSU have been invited as editors for the special issue “Microbial Biodegradation and Biotransformation” by of the Microorganisms international scientific journal (ISSN 2076-2607, Web of Science, Scopus, Q2). The issue will present experimental and review articles on modern approaches to microbial destruction and transformation of xenobiotics, as well as innovative technologies for bioremediation of contaminated ecosystems.

Xenobiotics are known as ‘unnatural’ chemical substances found within organisms, artificially introduced or unexpected; they may also be present in much higher concentrations as opposed to the usual ones. Natural compounds can also become xenobiotics if they are taken up by other organism, like the uptake of natural human hormones by fish found downstream of sewage treatment plant outfalls.

In search of rational ways of biodegradation, the efforts of most researchers have been concentrated in applied microbiology.

“Such challenge makes us expand and intensify the study of microorganisms in contaminated environments, the so-called extremotolerant microorganisms or stress-tolerants. These microorganisms play the role of a primary response system to unfavorable or potentially dangerous environmental changes, and initiate their adaptive responses at the earliest stage,”

notes Dr. Irina Ivshina, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and professor at PSU.

Dr. Irina Ivshina and Dr. Elena Tyumina, researchers from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Perm State University, will act as guest editors for the “Microbial Biodegradation and Biotransformation” special issue, section “Environmental Microbiology” by the Microorganisms Journal. Invitations to publish are being sent to leading experts and researchers from Russia, USA, Germany, France, China, Spain, Poland, Great Britain, Australia. The articles will be peer reviewed and published accordingly, the whole process taking about two weeks. Applications are welcomed until 31 July, 2022.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging, and using its submission form, until the deadline. As already mentioned, all papers will be accepted pert arrival, peer-reviewed, and listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI’s English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Original message from guest editors and editor in chief.
Special Issue “Microbial Biodegradation and Biotransformation”.

PSU Biologists and Hydrologists Contribute to Rivers of Europe Book

22.12.2021 / , , , , , , , ,

The Elsevier has published the second edition of the Rivers of Europe, ed. by K. Tockner, C. Zarfl, C.T. Robinson. As in the case of the first edition, researchers of the Faculty of Geography and the Faculty of Biology, Perm State University (PSU), contributed to the publication.

The book describes the biological and geographical features of the Volga and its tributaries, notably the Kama river and Perm-related part – serving the overall vision of the aquatic organisms and ichthyo-fauna, typical of the vast Volga-basin valley. It took 3 years to prepare the publication.

The contributors included researchers from the Department of Hydrology and Protection of Water Resources, the Department of Zoology of Invertebrates and Aquatic Ecology and the Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Ecology, PSU – making 1/3 of the section.

“The result is the most important reference book on all major European rivers, reflecting their current state. The urgent demand and feedback by its readers soon after the first publication in 2009 caused the editing team to start working on an updated version, nearly immediately,”

says Mikhail Baklanov, Head of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Ecology, PSU.

Interested on what is the Rivers of Europe about? Want to know more about Perm and the Kama basin?

The Volga River, at 3690 km (2293 mi), is known to be the longest river in Europe, 5th in Russia and 16th globally. The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea, the largest inland sea on Earth, covering various biomes from taiga to semidesert, holding about 151,000 rivers of which 2600 flow into the Volga directly – the Kama being its largest tributary, 5th longest river of Europe, crossing the vast Perm territory, and more.

Deriving its name from the Udmurt “kam”, meaning “river” or “current”. The river became a major link of communication between Asia and Europe. Originally colonized by Fins at the end of the 11th century, it saw the first Russian traders 3-4 centuries later, giving birth to Perm settlement and providing Imperial Russia with minerals, timber, fur and metals for production of armour and cannons.

Related section of the Book concerning the Kama river covers paleography; physiography, climate, and land use; geomorphology, hydrology, and biogeochemistry and questions of pollution; aquatic and riparian biodiversity – including plants, algae, zooplankton, zoobenthos and fish; questions of management and conservation; paleography of the catchment; physiography, climate, and land use.

Today, the Kama catchment consists of 12 administrative regions with a total population of 29 million people. Among them, >10 million (~40%) inhabit the adjacent riverine floodplain. Ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, coal industry, oil processing, and engineering and chemical industries cause heavy mining activity. Industrial discharge from the river-side cities are the main sources of pollution.

Providing a comprehensive outlook of the Volga and Kama basin, regarding their challenges and prospects, the PSU researchers see the increased content of manganese and iron compounds in water as a result of both anthropogenic and natural factors, including the bed weathering. In general, waters of the Kama are suitable for technical and domestic water supply, after treatment and disinfection.

The book experts, contributing to the research and publication, included Dr. Svetlana Dvinskikh, ScD. Victor Noskov, ScD. Alexander Kitaev, ScD Margarita Aleksevnina, ScD Anna Istomina, ScD Elena Presnova, ScD Mikhail Baklanov, Dr. Evgeny Zinoviev from the faculties of Geography and Biology, PSU.

Please, see the PDF of the Rivers of Europe enclosed.

PSU Biologist Reports at Global Fishery Forum

16.09.2021 / , , , ,

Mikhail Baklanov, Head of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, PSU presented his research in Aquatic Bio-Resources and Aquaculture in St. Petersburg, Russia.

PSU scholar took part in the round table “Will ‘Generation Z’ Go Fishing? The Problems of Education and Science”, as a part of the IV Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia.

Experts in all areas of the fishing industry took part in the event – fishing and processing companies, aquaculture and mariculture enterprises, developers of equipment for processing, fishing, shipbuilding, repair and equipment, food and additives’ manufacturers.

“Attracting young people to fish farming is possible on several terms. Transformation of job placements is crucial if we want workers to stay healthy, helping them fulfil their creative potential. So, digitalization and robotization of technological process looks like a necessary and attainable solution. State bodies and big businesses have already started to actively move into this direction, due to an acute shortage of qualified specialists,”

shares Mikhail Baklanov.

Ichthyology is one of the strongest points and key areas of research at the Faculty of Biology, Perm State University. Since 1936, more than 1,000 thousand people became graduates in ichthyology. Regardless of the specific field, all of them are multi-task specialists universals, capable of working at science and research institutions, as well as involved in fish farming, rational fishing and nature conservation.
Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top