Medsintez Plant among Winners of Evgeny Velikhov Memorial Grant Competition: Developing Russia’s First Industrial Platform Based on Synthetic CHO Cells

On July 7, the Academician A. P. Aleksandrov House of Scientists at the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute hosted the presentation of winning technological proposals from the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) competition for grants in memory of the prominent scientist Evgeny Velikhov. The event was attended by Andrei Fursenko, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the RSF Board of Trustees; Yulia Dyakova, Director of the National Research Center (NRC) Kurchatov Institute and member of the RSF Board of Trustees; Elena Popova, Deputy Director General of the RSF; as well as representatives of the winning companies, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and members of the scientific and business communities.

The Evgeny Velikhov Memorial Grant Competition was established in 2025 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its key objective is to support the development of technologies holding strategic importance for the country. This is the only RSF grant program named after a scientist and the largest one in terms of funding, with grant amounts ranging from 250 to 500 million rubles for a period of up to five years.

A unique feature of this competition is that it prioritizes a technological challenge posed by an enterprise ready to be responsible for implementing the future development, rather than a scientific problem. As Andrei Fursenko emphasized, «A key role in the Evgeny Velikhov Memorial Grant Competition is played by a qualified customer who poses highly complex tasks to be solved and is ready to take responsibility for their implementation.»

The selection process is structured in two stages: first, customer companies submit their technological proposals, and then, based on these applications, the research executors are selected. In 2026, the competition is being held under a new directive from the Head of State delivered at the Future Technologies Forum. The RSF received 24 technological proposals from twenty leading Russian companies and organizations. After a two-stage scientific and technological evaluation, which assessed both scientific novelty and the feasibility of implementation, the expert council identified seven projects that advanced to the final stage. A call for proposals to find scientific executors has already been announced for the selected projects.

The project of Medsintez Plant became one of the seven winning projects.

Natalya Musalnikova, Quality Director at Medsintez Plant LLC, presented a technological proposal to develop Russia’s first industrial platform for creating synthetic parental CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cells as the foundation for a new generation of cells producing biopharmaceutical substances.

These cell lines represent the global gold standard of the biotechnology industry, serving as the basis for producing 60 to 70% of all recombinant proteins used in modern medicine, including insulins, growth hormones, and blood clotting factors, as well as the vast majority of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies utilized in oncology and autoimmune diseases treatment.

As part of the project, it is planned to develop a parental cell line with a precisely characterized genome and a predictable phenotype. Such an industrial platform will significantly accelerate and enhance the efficiency of generating producer cells used in the manufacturing of biotechnological medicines. «Today, this specific stage remains one of the most complex and difficult to predict in the development of medicines,» explained Natalya Musalnikova.

The development will be validated using three model proteins, including promising molecules for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and obesity – socially significant diseases the prevalence of which is steadily rising both globally and in Russia. The successful completion of this stage will confirm the platform's effectiveness and pave the way for its widespread industrial application.

In other words, this is the creation of a domestic technological base that will serve as the national foundation for manufacturing innovative recombinant medicines. The availability of such a platform will not only accelerate the market launch of new drugs but also reduce dependence on imported cell lines, which is critical in the context of external restrictions. Furthermore, the domestic platform will enhance the global competitiveness of Russian biotechnology companies and enable them to participate more actively in international cooperation.

The Evgeny Velikhov Memorial Grant Competition continues the traditions of the scientist who, as Yulia Dyakova noted, never considered fundamental science an end in itself. For him, any new idea gained true value only when it had traveled the entire path – from the laboratory to practical application.

The project of Medsintez Plant fully aligns with this approach. It not only solves a specific scientific and technical challenge but also lays the foundation for a whole generation of new biotechnological medicines, opening up new horizons for the development of domestic biopharmaceuticals and strengthening Russia's technological sovereignty.

Photo of NRC Kurchatov Institute