BRIEF PREHISTORY OF PROJECT
The research on ecdysteroids, structural analogs of hormones of molting and metamorphose of insects, were launched in the Institute of Biology in 1992. Soon after the laboratory research was started, the world acknowledged the results of searching the new phytoecdysteroid-producing plant species, study of composition and distribution of ecdysteroids within the whole plant and obtaining cell cultures of ecdysteroid-containing plants. The International Workshop on Phytoecdysteroids took place in 1996 in Syktyvkar, on the basis of the Institute of Biology. Leading specialists from Russia, CIS countries and Western Europe took part in the Workshop. The Workshop allowed to get acquainted in detail with the directions of the research work and to assess the possibility of scientific cooperation. In 1997, scientific teams of Prof. Rene Lafont (Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France), Dr. Laurence Dinan (Exeter University, Great Britain), Prof. Z.Saatov (Institute of Chemistry of Plant Substances, Tashkent, Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan Republic) and Dr. Biol. Sci. V.V.Volodin (Institute of Biology, Komi SC UrD RAS, Syktyvkar) developed a project aiming at the studies of distribution of ecdysteroids in geographically remote floras (European North-East of Russia and Middle Asia) which got the support of International Program INTAS.
DATES OF IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECT
1998-2000
FUNDING ORGANIZATION
INTAS
PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR
Dr. Laurence Dinan (Exeter University, Great Britain)
RESPONSIBLE SCIENTIST
Dr. Biol. V.V.Volodin
