Winner. Scientist of the Year 2020

Shahlo Turdikulova

Academic title, degree: Professor, Ph.D., Doctor of Science in Biochemistry
Fields of science: Genetics, Molecular Biology
Research interest: Human evolution and genetics of human diseases, pioneering genetic diagnostics in Uzbekistan
Institution: Center for Advanced Technologies
Position: Director
Country: Uzbekistan

Shahlo Turdikulova was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 1995 she graduated from the Biology Faculty of the Tashkent State University (now National University of Uzbekistan). Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova was awarded with her PhD degree in Biotechnology (2001) and Doctor of Sciences in Biochemistry and Cell Biology (2008) from the National University of Uzbekistan.

Prof. Turdikulova completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California (Los Angeles, USA) in 2002-2005, where she conducted research on trafficking and sorting of glycosylated membrane proteins in polarized cells, and published 5 scientific papers. After she had returned to Uzbekistan, she was successful to be awarded with the NATO reintegration grant for the period of 2006-2009 that allowed her to start the new research branch for Uzbekistan - human genetics research. She was interested in studies of genetic of the Uzbek population who inhabit the area where several ancient Silk Road routes cross and who has undergone influence of various Western and Eastern gene pools.

Dr. Turdikulova started to work at the Academy of Science, where she has established excellent research team and a good scientific network between researchers of the Academy of Sciences, Universities and Healthcare System, initiated new research branch on human genetics and developed new methods for genetic disease diagnostics. At present, the research team led by Dr. Turdikulova is one of the leading groups in human genetics studies who identified more than 350 gene markers for 212 disease-susceptibility genes for 28 diseases, including neonatal disease, cancer, diabetes, cardio-vascular and gastrointestinal diseases. Gene tests developed by the research team are implemented and used in 8 clinics of Uzbekistan. A unique DNA bank containing 8000 DNA samples of Uzbekistan population for various diseases is established.

In 2010, the research team of Dr. Turdikulova joined the Genographic International Consortium. The task was to study genetic origin of population from regions of Uzbekistan and their link with other world populations. This work resulted in a number of top-rated publications, including two papers published in the “Nature” journal (2014 and 2016). Since 2012 Dr. Shahlo has made a significant contribution in establishing the first country’s state-of-the-art Center for Advanced Technologies, she has been working from the very beginning of the project and contributed in developing of the Center concept, staff hiring, planning of the laboratories, purchasing and installing of equipment, etc. In 2018 she was appointed as Director of this Center.

All these years Prof. Turdikulova has been giving lectures on Biotechnology and Gene Engineering for students of Biotechnology Department of National University of Uzbekistan.

She has participated in international CRDF, FP7, Erasmus grants as researcher, and in NATO and joint Uzbekistan/China-2016 grant as Principal Investigator.

Prof. Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova is one of the first Uzbek scientists who located the Uzbek population genomes on the world map of human genome. Being Postdoctoral fellow of UCLA, now she has become a leading scientist in molecular genetics in Uzbekistan. Recently Prof. Turdikulova was awarded with the President’s Medal for outstanding contribution to science and strengthening international collaboration.

Prof. Turdikulova has more than 91 publications, and also she is the author of 2 student’s textbooks. By the h-index of 12 Prof. Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova is the #10 among all 2500 Doctors of Sciences in Uzbekistan, and only one fifth of those are women scientists. During the last five years Prof. Turdikulova became a PI of five grant projects, including Islamic Bank grant that was received in 2020. This year under her leadership in less than three months the first national PCR test system for SARS-CoV-2 was developed, registered, and started mass production as over 500 000 tests per month.

Dr. Shahlo Turdikulova successfully conducted series of scientific researches in genetics of Uzbek population. In cooperation with international colleagues she published a number of papers in the recognized scientific journals. She was the first scientist in Uzbekistan who published in “Nature” journal. She also has publications in “Genome Research”, “PLOS Genetics”, “Biochemical Journal”, “Nature Ecology & Evolution”. In 2019 Prof. Shahlo Turdikulova has established the first science startup accelerator in Central Asia to help young scientists to develop their own startups and bring the innovations to the market.