Benefits of scientific collaboration between Ukraine and UK#

Collaboration between scientists from Kyiv’s Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology and Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences have resulted in important advances.

The Russian criminal war against Ukraine is causing immense suffering in this large European country and has resulted in the worst refugee crisis since the second world war. While we reflect on these terrible events at the Vigil for Ukraine on 9th March at 11 am, led by the Vice-Chancellor Colin Riordan MAE, it is worth noting that collaboration between scientists from Kyiv’s Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology and Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences have resulted in important advances.

A paper published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS 101: 13186-13191, 2013) on ‘Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ channel blockade as a potential tool in antipancreatitis therapy’, co-authored by staff from Cardiff University and the Bogomoletz Institute in Kyiv, is in the top-20 most cited papers (out of a total of more than 5000 papers) with a UK-Ukraine collaboration over the past ten years. Oleksiy Gryshchenko, who has been a frequent visiting scientist at Cardiff University over many years and is in Kyiv right now participating in the defence of the Ukrainian capital, is a joint first author of this highly cited 2013 PNAS paper (>150 citations according to Google Scholar). Dr. Gryshchenko, is a recipient of the 2016 Burgen Scholar Award of Academia Europaea.

Dr Oleksiy Gryshchenko (right) receives the Burgen Scholar Award at the Annual Conference of Academia Europaea, held at Cardiff University in 2016, from Professor Sierd Cloetingh, who was President of Academia Europaea at that time.