In mid-October one facility in Pushchino near Moscow started undergoing a mysterious metamorphosis.

An ordinary transformer box turned into a real object d'art.

The plain grey wall was replaced with drawings of biotech engineers busy at work. Bizarre plants started growing in futuristic flasks. An unusual, bewitchingly beautiful, little-known molecule emerged from heating one of the flasks.

The idea of ​​this metamorphosis was born in the Biruch Innovation Centre. And the master of street art, painter and photographer Alexander Nazaretsky, known in the creative community as Sean, was invited to deliver the project.

Pushchino is a small town near Moscow with a population of 20,000. It is a true tech town renowned for its achievements in biotechnology.

Biotech is a key sector for the Biruch Innovation Centre. In this EFKO tech town near Alexeyevka in Belgorod Region, scientists are creating new food enzymes, healthy sugar alternatives, plant-based meat and milk alternatives, natural flavourants.

Hence the Biruch Innovation Centre was confident there was something it could collaborate on with Pushchino biotech engineers. The idea of a research competition was born. The results were announced on 19 October at the Institute of Biological Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An A-list guest, exciting research papers and even a Hi! food truck serving plant-based burgers – we think the meeting was a success. However, the opinion of participants and winners of the competition would be more representative.

Sergey Ryazansky, guest of the open meeting, Hero of Russia, test cosmonaut

‘Honestly, I never dreamt of becoming a cosmonaut. From childhood I wanted to do science, to be a biologist, a scientist. And so it happened. I graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University (Department of Virology). I even had a summer internship in Pushchino. I have absolutely amazing memories of the city. Later on I worked at the Institute of Biomedical Problems. There I was involved in providing medical support for space flights as well as biosatellites. I started by studying monkeys before and after a flight, but in the end it so happened that one day I flew myself. And by the second flight I was lucky to become the commander of the space crew, the first scientist commander.’

Rita Rynkevich, Deputy Director for Incorporation at Biruch Innovation Centre

‘The level of work of the participants surpassed our wildest expectations and confirmed the unstated status of Pushchino as one of Russia's biotech centres. Some projects intersect with our research interests. For example, the paper on enzymes contained in the digestive system of the king crab or the project for a new type of bioreactor. We are pleased to meet face-to-face with the authors of the papers and their research supervisors and look forward to continuing cooperation!’

Evgeny Sogorin, Head of Applied Enzymology Group at the Institute of Biological Instrumentation

‘We know that EFKO is working on innovative biotech projects. Our project is also linked with them. My paper is on king crab enzymes. We see good prospects for their use in medicine and cosmetology, and science overall.’

Ilya Domnin, a student at the Obninsk Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering

‘Our report deals with stress and ways to reduce it. The event was very useful and enabled gaining interesting experience and identifying career potential.’