The festival was co-organized by the School of Natural Sciences (SHEN) of Tyumen State University and the Moscow Center for Innovative Technologies in Healthcare.
The headliner of the festival was Kurt Wuthrich, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He delivered a lecture "Molecules of Life", dedicated to the history of the development of methods of structural biology, and answered questions from schoolchildren from different cities of Russia.
"I am pleasantly surprised by the high level of training of Russian schoolchildren in the field of life sciences, as well as their knowledge of the English language,"the Nobel laureate said.
"The popularization of science and modern technologies among schoolchildren has recently reached unprecedented proportions. The success of the All-Russian online forum "Genes and Genomes" is another confirmation of this. I am convinced that participation in master classes and live communication with leading scientists was extremely useful and left a response in the hearts of young researchers. Thank you all for your participation and wish you success in any endeavors!" –said Dmitry Livanov, Rector of MIPT.
Rector of UTMN Ivan Romanchuk emphasized:
"The experience of participation of Russian schoolchildren in such events creates a unique favorable background for the most enthusiastic and motivated. It is these guys who will become researchers in the near future. It was the first time we were co-organizers of the event and we received great satisfaction. It is hoped that in the very near future our School of Natural Sciences will become a place of attraction for young biologists."
"Genes and Genomes is an excellent online platform that unites schoolchildren and students interested in high technologies, many participants were from Moscow. We will be glad to see the most active undergraduate students who took part in the forum as interns in our Center. I am sure that in just a few years, we will receive new high–quality developments and will already work with the guys to ensure that their ideas begin to bring real benefits to people,"commented Vyacheslav Shulenin, General Director of the Moscow Center for Innovative Technologies in Healthcare.
Two days of the festival gathered more than 40 thousand views of the broadcast, more than 7 thousand registrations, 1.5 thousand certificates of participants were issued. It was possible to reach schoolchildren from the most remote schools in Russia and CIS countries. Each of these students could ask a question to leading researchers in their field and get an answer online.
Video recordings of lectures and master classes of the two days of the festival are available on the website https://genygenomy.com.