International Sakharov Environmental Institute of Belarusian State University

The Chair of General Biology and Genetics was established on September 1, 2017 (Director’s order No. 99-0) according to the decision of the Council of International Sakharov Environmental Institute of BSU dated on March 28, 2017 (Protocol No. 6) and in order to improve the quality of the educational process, create conditions for optimal use of material and human resources as a result of the merger of the Chair of Human Biology and Ecology and the Chair of Environmental and Molecular Genetics.

The Chair provides full-time and correspondence form study for students of the following specialties:

• 1-80 02 01 – “Medical and Biological Science” (major in 1-80 02 01 01 “Cytology”);
• 1-33 01 05 – “Medical Ecology”;
• 1-100 01 01 – “Nuclear and radiation safety”;
• 1-31 04 05 – “Medical Physics”.

12 of 27 lecturers at the Chair are full-time specialists (1 professor, 5 associate professors, 4 senior lecturers, 2 lecturers), 8 lecturers are internal part-timers (1 professor, 4 associate professors, 2 senior lecturers, 1 trainee lecturer), 7 lecturers are external part-timers (1 professor, 5 associate professors, 1 senior lecturer).

Leading specialists of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the N. N. Alexandrov Russian Research Center of Oncology and Medical Radiology, the Russian Research Center of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology, the State Institution “Republican Scientific and Practical Sports Center”, Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Maxim Tank are involved to implement the educational process on an hourly basis.

The academic load for the 2019-2020 academic year was 15,405 academic hours.

Most of the lecturers of the Chair have more than 10 years of teaching experience.

The educational process at the Chair is served by 5 laboratory assistants and 1 specialist.

The Chair trains 16 master students in the specialties 1-33 80 01 “Ecology (biological sciences)” and 1-33 80 05 “Medical and Biological Science”(major in “Cytogenetics”) as well as 6 postgraduate students in the specialty 03.02.08 – “Ecology”.

1. Cytology and histology. Cytology
2. Cytological research methods
3. Fundamentals of biology. Botany
4. Module “Fundamentals of medical knowledge” Biology and fundamentals of medical knowledge
5. “Human Anatomy”
6. Module “Psychology and pedagogy”. Methods of teaching biology
7. Introduction to the specialty
8. Human anatomy and physiology
9. Anatomy and physiology. Human Anatomy
10. Mechanisms of cell differentiation
11. Cytology and histology. Biology of individual development
12. Cytology and histology. Embryology
13. The biotechnology module. Biotechnology
14. Cell physiology in normal and pathological conditions
15. Organization of cellular and tissue structures
16. Methodology and methods of research 
17. Module “Cell Biology”. Histology and embryology
18. Cytology and histology. Histology
19. Clinical cytology
20. “Medical parasitology”
21. “Fundamentals of biology. Zoology”
22. “Genetics. Radiation genetics”
23. Module “Cell Biology”. Genetics
24. Molecular organization and functioning of biosystems
25. Radiation cytogenetics
26. Genetics. Medical genetics
27. Methods of molecular genetic diagnostics of chromosomal aberrations
28. Pathological anatomy and physiology. Pathological anatomy
29. Anatomy and Physiology
30. Human Anatomy and Physiology
31. Pathological anatomy and physiology. Pathological anatomy
32. Cytology and histology. Histology
33. Module “Biodiversity”. Zoology
34. “Fundamentals of biology. Zoology”
35. Fundamentals of biology. Botany
36. Genetics. General and environmental genetics
37. Human life safety
38. Xenobiology and bioassay
39. Medico-genetic screening and diagnostics of human pathologies / Oncogenetics
40. Cytological diagnostics of human neoplasms
41. Cytogenetic methods for the diagnosis of systemic pathology
42. Environmental problems of megacities
43. Cytological research methods
44. Methods of biology teaching

Main research directions

“Molecular-genetic and cellular studies of human body pathologies under conditions of high anthropogenic load”, “Biodiversity and environmental characteristics as an indicator of the state of environmental systems in the context of environmental transformation” and “Improvement of educational methods for students of I and II stages of higher education of biological and genetic profile in the context of the formation of new approaches to higher education”.

Main research topics 

“Improvement of scientific and methodological support of the educational process of students of I and II of higher education of International Sakharov Environmental Institute of BSU in the biogenetic cycle disciplines”

The Chair is located in buildings 1 and 3 (23/1 Dolgobrodskaya str., 15 Botanicheskaya str.), has educational laboratories:

• cytology,
• histology,
• human anatomy,
• nerds,
• zoology,
• chromosomal pathology,
• cellular technologies.

The Chair has a training  and research laboratory of environmental biotechnology.