About us

Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology

General provisions

The Republican State Enterprise on the right of economic management «Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology» of the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established by reorganizing the subsidiary state enterprise «Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology» of the Republican State Enterprise on the right of economic management «National Center of Biotechnology of the Republic of Kazakhstan» according to the decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated March 1, 2010 No. 151 «On some issues of republican state-owned enterprises Committee of Science of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan».

The functions of the subject of the right of republican state ownership in relation to the Institute are performed by the Committee of State Property and Privatization of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The state management body of the Institute is the Committee of Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Structure

The structure of the Institute consists of 7 laboratories:

• Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding (Head of the Laboratory – Kokhmetova A.M., Doctor of Sciences, Prof.)
• Laboratory of Cell Engineering (Head of the Laboratory – Uteulin K. R., Doctor of Sciences, Assoc. Prof.)
• Laboratory of Germplasm Cryopreservation (Head of the Laboratory – Kushnarenko S.V., Candidate of Sciences, Prof.)
• Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Head of the Laboratory – Gritsenko D.A., Ph.D.)
• Laboratory of Molecular Genetics (Head of the Laboratory – Turuspekov Ye. K., Candidate of Sciences, Prof.)
• Laboratory of Breeding and Biotechnology (Head of the Laboratory – Shamekova M.Kh., Ph.D., Assoc. Prof.)
• Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry (Head of the Laboratory– Usenbekov D.N., Candidate of Sciences, Assoc. Prof.)

The major achievements

Effective biotechnologies have been improved:

• Agricultural Biotechnology – for acceleration and facilitation of breeding process on creation of the improved crop cultivars (microclonal propagation; haploid biotechnology; cell selection; technology based on DNA markers; embryo culture; marker assisted selection; genetic engineering; genome editing technology);
• Preservation of Plant Genetic Resources at ultra-low temperature (-196 ⁰C) on the basis of cryopreservation methods;
• Phytoremediation of the soils polluted by heavy metals and pesticides;
• Biological Safety — test systems for diagnostics of viral, bacterial, fungal plant diseases, for GMO detection.

• 58 cultivars of agricultural crops have been developed (together with agricultural institutions and independent): wheat (44), rice (5), barley (3), soybean (2), kok-saghyz (1), rapeseed (1). 16 cultivars were released.
• 109 patents for inventions and copyright certificates on new cultivars have been received.
• Researches on 25 international grants have been conducted.
• Defense of Dissertations: 16 doctor’s, 31 candidate’s, 23 PhD
• 16 State scientific scholarships: for outstanding scientists – 8 (Polimbetova F., Rakhimbayev I., Sedlovsky A., Sarsenbayev B., Bishimbayeva N., Turuspekov Ye., Abugalieva S., Kokhmetova A.); for talented young scientists – 8 (Mukhambetzhanov S., Terletskaya N., Mukanova G., Asrandina S., Vecherko N., Rysbekova A., Almerekova S., Kumarbayeva M.)
• 3 Prizes of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan «The Best Researcher» — Turuspekov Ye., Abugalieva S., Kokhmetova A.
• IPBB got 1st place among the research institutes of MES of RK in terms of the number of articles for 2019-2020 in the databases Web of Science and Scopus in recalculation for scientists (2021, MES of RK).
• IPBB entered in the top of 3 leading scientific organizations among 18 research institutes of Kazakhstan (2022, Information and Analytical Center JSC).

Best Innovative Projects and Developments

Commercialization projects of JSC Science Foundation and the World Bank:

• «Production of super-elite seedlings of fruit and nut crops using biotechnology methods» (with Integration-Turgen LLP).
• «Services and goods for the diagnosis of pathogens of apple trees and grapes, the identification of genetically modified crops, and the production of phytopathogen-free material of fruit and berry crops» (with Beskar LLP).
• «Organization of production and sale of elite planting material of turang poplar and poplar hybrids of Kazakh breeding based on the use of biotechnological methods of clonal micropropagation and agrotechnical cultivation techniques with an integrated system of protection against pests and diseases» (co-executor) (with Eurasia Agro Holding LLP).
• «Obtaining highly productive forms of Taraxacum kok-saghyz Rodin, a domestic rubber producer.»

Developments:

• Methods for identification of breeding-valuable lines of wheat, soybean, barley using molecular markers based on KASP
  technology (Patents No. 5061, No. 5055 of 05.02.2020; No. 6643 of 05.11.2021; No. 7588 of 04.08.2023).
• Sets of synthetic oligonucleotides for detection of raspberry ringspot, tomato brown rugose fruit, five potato viruses (Patents No. 7018 of 15.04.2022; No. 7296 of 22.07.2022; No. 36219 of 19.05.2023).
• Technical assistance in laboratory and field tests on bioremediation and phytoremediation of soils contaminated with POPs and heavy metals (FAO international project);
• Method for obtaining adventitious roots culture of Turkestan soaproot in vitro (Patent No. 7649 of 09.12.2022).
• Databases have been created: «Biodiversity of the flora of Kazakhstan» (http://www.kazflora.kz/); “System for recording seed potatoes and planting material of fruit crops in the Republic of Kazakhstan” (http://certificates.ipbb.kz/).
• Information on the collection of genotypes of fruit and berry crops and rice of domestic and foreign breeding is connected to the international database Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) (http://www.bgci.org/garden.php?id=4756)

Scientific potential. The staff consists of 142 people, of whom 84 are researchers. The staff of the Institute is represented by highly qualified specialists (Doctors of Sciences – 6, including 2 academicians of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 1 corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, candidates of Sciences – 6, PhD – 12). Employees have repeatedly interned and conducted research in leading scientific and educational centers of the far and near abroad: USA, Japan, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Israel, Australia, South Korea, China, India, Philippines, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan.

In recent years, there has been a significant rejuvenation of the Institute‘s staff. The average age of employees is 41 years.

Training of personnel. The Institute is recognized in the CIS countries, as a major scientific center for physiology and biochemistry, genetics and biotechnology of plants. Academicians of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan F.A. Polimbetova (30 candidates and 10 doctors of Sciences have been trained), I. Rakhimbaev (30 candidates and 8 doctors of sciences have been trained) have formed recognized and well-known scientific schools in the field of plant physiology and biotechnology in Kazakhstan and CIS countries, whose representatives successfully work both at the Institute and at universities and others scientific centers of Kazakhstan, as well as near and far abroad. The specialization of these schools is the study of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of plant vital activity at the cellular, tissue and organismal levels and the development of new effective biotechnological methods on this basis.

The scientists of the Institute provide scientific guidance and scientific and methodological support in the preparation of doctoral and master‘s theses in biological and agronomic specialties.

Every year, about 20 employees study at the PhD doctoral and master‘s degrees of Al—Farabi Kazakh National University, KazNAU and other leading universities.

Strategic goals. The main goal of the strategy for the future in scientific terms is the development of existing areas of the institute with the involvement of theoretical achievements of world science and modern approaches of molecular biology and biotechnology. The second no less significant goal is the commercialization of the institute‘s existing achievements.

In this regard, the main goal for the near future is that the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology should be transformed into an institute of an innovative type.