Published on: 2026-08-24
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
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The team of students from NSU Restrictio won a silver medal for participating in the main program of the SynBio Challenges competition (Shenzhen, China) with a project in the field of biomedicine, which had the highest number of applications and the strongest competition. The team members were: Vladislava Martyushova, a master’s student at the Advanced Engineering School of NSU, team captain, Olesya Vasyutenko, Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies (IMMT) of NSU, Boris Kondrashov, Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS) of NSU, as well as students from other universities — Alisa Martyushova, Sechenov University, Vanessa Stermer, FEFU. The team from NSU was the only Russian team to participate in the main program of the international competition.
This year, there were 3,849 registered participants and 512 teams from China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, the Netherlands, Nepal, and Brazil. The contest was held in several categories, mainly covering three tracks: “Biomedicine,” “Agriculture,” and “Bioengineering.” Other teams from Russia participated in additional tracks “Protein Design” and “Synthetic Cell.” The team of NSU students GeneMeow, who participated remotely, won two gold and one silver medals in the three additional tracks. The MSU student team won a gold medal in the “Synthetic Cell” track and a silver medal in the “Protein Design” track; student teams from FEFU and RSMU won gold medals in the “Protein Design” track, and the SFedU team won gold in the “Synthetic Cell” track.
Sergey Sedykh, judge of the main program of the SynBio Challenges competition, mentor of the NSU student team, candidate of biological sciences, head of the master’s program of the Advanced Engineering School of NSU “Advanced Engineering Solutions for Biotechnology and Medicine,” senior lecturer at IMMT and FEN NSU, commented:
— In the fifth season of the SynBio Challenges competition, teams from leading Russian universities participated — Moscow State University, Novosibirsk State University, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Southern Federal University, and Far Eastern Federal University. Interest in the competition is growing, with the number of Russian teams submitting applications doubling. Compared to last year, the number of participating countries has also increased — teams from the Netherlands, Nepal, and Brazil have joined.
Synthetic biology is one of the key technologies in the strategy for scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, and training young professionals in this field is an extremely important task. NSU is the organizer of several events and competitions for students on this topic: in January 2026, the tenth Synthetic Biology School was held, since 2019 we have been organizing the “Genome Editing” track of the National Technological Olympiad and the “Bioengineering and Bioinformatics” track of the “I am a Professional” Olympiad. The brilliant participation of NSU students in SynBio Challenges speaks to the high level of fundamental training at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and Medical Technologies.
Captain of team Restrictio Vladislava Martyushova said:
— This year I graduated from the Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at NSU. The project we presented at the SynBio Challenges contest was a continuation of my bachelor’s thesis. Our team worked on a system for analyzing genomic DNA methylation using methylation-dependent restriction endonucleases. Unfortunately, there is currently no similar standalone contest in the life sciences field in Russia. Therefore, the interest of Russian students in this event is very high. We met students from other countries and gained new ideas for projects in synthetic biology! Next year, we plan to return to Shenzhen for the “gold” of the main track.
In 2021, the iGEM-Siberia team of students from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at NSU won a silver medal at the international genetically engineered machine competition iGEM; also in 2021, five teams of students from Moscow universities received medals. In 2025, the GeneMeow team of students from the Faculty of Natural Sciences at NSU won a gold medal at the international synthetic biology competition SynBio Challenges (Shenzhen, China); in addition to the NSU team, student teams from Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University and Moscow State University also received medals.
— The field of life sciences and synthetic biology is key for Novosibirsk State University and the research institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In August, the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin inaugurated the SCP “SKIF”, which will address tasks related to structural biology. At the Council on Science and Education under the President of the Russian Federation, held at the SCP “SKIF”, the issue of training personnel for science and industry was discussed, including for research using the new megascience facility.
The medals that our student teams receive at international competitions confirm that NSU is one of the leaders in this field. I wholeheartedly congratulate the guys! – noted the rector of NSU, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Pyshny.
The NSU Restrictio team thanks JSC “R-Pharm” for their assistance in purchasing airline tickets.
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