Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. M. A. Aitkhozhin \\\\\\\”KN MES RK

ISKAKOV BULAT KUDAIBERGENOVICH (was born in 1951)

Doctor of biological Sciences, Professor

Iskakov Bulat Kudaibergenovich was born on September 14, 1951 in Alma-Ata city. He graduated from the biology faculty of C.M. Kirov Kazakh State University in 1973, in the same year he entered full-time graduate school of the Institute of Botany of the Academy of sciences of the Kazakh SSR in the laboratory of biochemistry of protein and nucleic acids. In 1981, under the guidance of Murat Aitkhozhin he defended his candidate thesis on the topic “Polypeptide composition of various classes of informosomes and RNA-binding proteins of higher plant cells” in the dissertation council at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of sciences of the Kazakh SSR. In 1997 Bulat Iskakov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Study of molecular mechanisms and regulation of protein biosynthesis in plants” in the Dissertation council at the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. In 1999 he passed the nostrification and was awarded the degree of Doctor of biological sciences. In 2002 Bulat Iskakov awarded the title of professor in the “biology” specialty.

He has completed internships in many scientific centers: Russian Federation (Moscow, Pushchino); Great Britain (Canterbury, Dundee); Switzerland (Basel); Israel (Volkani Center).

Under the leadership of Bulat Iskakov for the first time in Kazakhstan established and improved biotechnology to obtain drought-resistant transgenic plants (potatoes, tobacco), as well as plants resistant to phytopathogenic viruses, using approaches antisense RNA and RNA interference. For the first time it was established that specific mechanisms of translational control, different from animals can function in plant cells, which can provide the initiation of translation without the participation of some protein factors.

From 1994 to 2004 Bulat Iskakov led research projects in the framework of many international projects financed by grants from foreign funds INTAS, US AID, INCO COPERNICUS, Royal Society, SCOPES. These projects have been successfully implemented together with scientists from Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and Israel. Bulat Iskakov is the author of more than 200 publications. His fundamental research of molecular mechanisms of transmission regulation in plants in normal and under the influence of adverse environmental factors is a priority and meets the requirements of the international standard. This is proved by publications in international scientific journals: FEBS Letters; Biochimica et Biophysica Acta; European Journal of Biochemistry; Biochimie; Plant Science; Nuclear Acids Research; Molecular biology; Biochemistry; plant Physiology; Biopolymers and cell. At many international conferences Bulat Iskakov invited as a guest speaker. He has hirsh index – 5 and more than 120 citations.

Professor Bulat Iskakov has developed a “Gene Engineering” course of study and from 1998 to the present time has been teaching students at the Al-Farabi Kazakh State University. Under the guidance of Bulat Iskakov there were completed and defended 6 candidates, 1 doctoral and 1 PhD dissertations.

Bulat Iskakov is the successor of Murat Aitkhozhin’s scientific school in the field of studying molecular mechanisms and regulation of protein biosynthesis in plants. Besides, Bulat Iskakov is the founder of the Kazakhstan scientific school in the field of genetic engineering of plants to improve their resistance to phytopathogenic viruses and abiotic environmental factors.