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Ulviyya Poladova

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In light of increased interest in the capabilities of biotechnology worldwide, those who took part in the Youth DNA Forum in Baku emphasized just how fast the world of genetics is developing. The topics discussed at the forum were indicative of a general trend towards greater precision and innovation in both healthcare and science.

The event was a forum for discussion and the exchange of knowledge in the field. The fact that the role of genetics has become increasingly crucial for the formation of contemporary science and the development of medicine can be noted as a key factor in the forum. Given that the world scientific community tends to turn its attention to precision medicine, the mentioned event emphasizes the relevance of current trends in Azerbaijan and the cultivation of future specialists.

The forum was aimed at discussing the development of science from the discovery of DNA to the appearance of novel methods that change the approaches towards diagnostics and treatment. Some of the key innovations discussed include Real-Time PCR, Sanger sequencing with clinical implications, NGS, and CRISPR-Cas9 technologies.

Beyond technical advancements, participants also underscored the broader implications of these developments, including the shift toward personalized medicine, the growing role of bioinformatics in managing large-scale genomic data, and the ethical considerations accompanying gene-editing technologies.

Speaking exclusively to AzerNEWS on the sidelines of the event, geneticist Jala Nasibova shared her insights on the latest innovations in genetics, emphasizing that the field is entering a new phase defined by rapid technological progress and expanding real-world applications:

"In the field of genetics, in general, in recent years, due to the technological era we have been in, due to the development of that science, there are many advances, and I think from what was actually discussed at this conference, and from what has already been commented on, you can see that the usual CAS-9, before we were talking about CAS-9, now we are talking about CAS-12, and at the same time, we can already talk about various gene therapies, and advances in this direction can play an important role in doing certain work towards restoring that gene in many diseases, gene diseases, or not restoring that gene, but restoring its development in metabolism."

According to her, targeted therapies are redefining cancer treatment:

"At the same time, for example, if we think about the previous years, in those years, oncological diseases were often treated as diseases that could not be treated or were only treated as diseases that could be subjected to chemotherapy. It is already clear that targeted therapies in this era allow us to determine the sequence of genes present in these patients and prepare specific drugs specific to that disease, or to generalize them in different, specific ways, in people with different genotypes of certain diseases, targeted treatments can be applied, meaning that if there is a certain mutation in a certain gene, this treatment cannot be applied to this person, this treatment should be applied, and chemotherapy is now reaching a point where it will be the last resort, and I think this is the greatest of the recent achievements, and currently, in our view, there are more successful results in this direction for oncological diseases than we realize, and of course, scientific research continues, there are more that have been put into the routine than we realize, but work is being done in the scientific direction, both to achieve more success in gene therapy, and there are many types of cancer, the extent of cancer, and certain work is being done so that all of these types can be treated in this direction. I think that the most successful results of our time are actually in this direction - gene therapy and the results in the direction of the development of targeted drugs."

Stem cell advances are changing how drugs are developed, as Nasibova believes chemotherapy is becoming a last resort:

"In relation to genetics, what we call stem cell therapy is also a stage that is being broken down within genetics, and the results that have been achieved in this direction mean that we no longer need to use humans or any living beings in the development of drugs. From that pluripotent cell that we obtained, in which organ the pluripotent cell exists, for example, a drug is prepared against cancer or a drug is prepared against any disease, in which organ the disease is present, the pluripotent cell is stimulated and transformed into a cell of that organ and the drugs are already applied to those cells and it is observed whether it is harmful or will it have an effective effect or not, that is, the patient writes those cells, as a result, but as we talked about yesterday, if we were not talking about it in the middle of the day, mainly if drugs were not prepared for the treatment of diseases, it would be possible to use animal cells, animals, so to speak, mice, sometimes rats, etc. These are now eliminated, and I think that in order to achieve results more quickly and at the same time, because those cells can already give results directly, we can say that the result of the drug is successful; these are among the greatest successes."