EAM

Prof Mikhail Gelfand graduated from the Moscow State University (MSU) with a degree in mathematics. Since then he has worked in the fields of bioinformatics and molecular evolution and obtained the Candidate of Sciences degree in Mathematics and Biophysics from Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, Pushchino, and then the Doctor of Sciences degree in Biology and Molecular Biology from Research Institute for Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms (GosNIIGenetika).

Mikhail held research positions at the Institute of Protein Research and at GosNIIGenetika, and the position of Director of Science at Integrated Genomics, Moscow. Today, Mikhail is Professor of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics at MSU, Vice-Director for Science at the Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems RAS (ITTP), and Head of IITP Research and Training Center of Bioinformatics.

The main directions of Mikhail’s research are comparative-genomic analysis of regulatory interactions (regulatory networks and co-evolution of transcription factors and their cognate DNA motifs), metabolic reconstruction and functional annotation of individual genes, and evolution of bacterial genomes (composition of pan- and core genomes, genome rearrangements, horizontal gene transfer).

He also collaborates with field microbiologists in the annotation of bacterial genomes and metagenomes. His other main area is eukaryotic systems biology where he is interested in transcriptomics, epigenomics, and chromatin 3D structure.