Members of FAR’s educational program committee recently visited the sites where this year’s grantees from the Armenian National Science and Education Fund (ANSEF) are currently conducting their research. For the past 10 months, these 27 groups have been working on a wide range of projects in the sciences and the humanities. Their work has been featured in more than 65 news articles published in international scientific journals and they have also presented their work at more than 40 conferences and symposiums throughout this year.
This week FAR will be highlighting the work of selected ANSEF groups.
To learn more about FAR’s ANSEF program click here.
Anichka Hovsepyan is the supervisor of the six members of ANSEF NS-biotech 2077 who have united to study and investigate the water-soluble bacteria melanin. When our team paid a visit to the lab where biotech 2077 is conducting their research, we witnessed a devoted and enthusiastic group.
The group is working mainly in Yerevan’s Scientific Research Institute of Biotechnology, where they have found a melanin synthesizing strain-producer, which is water-soluable and more valuable than those produced by other methods. As a result of the experiments the group did on the animals and plants, they found that this type of melanin stimulates growth in more than 50 species of plants. Experiments also show that the bacterial melanin aids the central nervous system’s post-traumatic period recovery processes.
“This is good example of collaboration,” explained group leader Armen Aghajanyan. “Without ANSEF support we could never have implemented this project.”