INSTITUTE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY

The institute is one of the leading institutes in Lithuania in terms of revenue, earned by participating in international programmes. It is a State Research Institute. The priorities of the Institute are: multidisciplinary studies of restriction - modification enzymes, and the research and development of recombinant biomedical proteins. The institute has the following laboratories:

Laboratory of Protein - DNA Interactions
Laboratory of Biological DNA Modification
Laboratory of Prokaryote Gene Engineering
Laboratory of Eukaryote Gene Engineering
Laboratory of Immunology
Laboratory of Biothermodynamics and Drug Design
Laboratory of Bioinformatics

INSTITUTE OF BIOCHEMISTRY
The Institute of Biochemistry was established by the Presidium of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 1966. The main directions of research at the Institute are: "modeling and studies of enzyme structure; synthesis of artificial biocatalysts and mutagenous materials in an effort to create mutagenous microorganisms, which produce specific enzymes and biomass for cattle-breeding; synthesis of cytotoxic chemical materials and studies of their influence on the cell; synthesis of proteins, amino acids and vitamins from nutrition and technical waste sources - studies of chemical and microbiological processes".

From 1967, the organizational structure of the Institute has changed several times. The current structure of the Institute is reflected  in the description of  its departments.

Since the first direction of the Institute’s scientific activity included a very broad spectrum of research, integration of the investigations and groups, formation of the direction appropriate to the Institute’s profile were constant worries of the Institute leaders and the Scientific Council (from 1992 - the Council). Thus already in 1980, the formulation of the main research direction was significantly improved - “biochemical and genetic basics of cell functioning (studies of immunogenesis, malignization, enzymatic catalysis, macromolecules’ modification, energy transformation in biomembranes) and directional synthesis of cytoactive compounds.” In this overview we will mention only a few of the main research characteristics and results from this time period.


VILNIUS UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOPHYSICS
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of Vilnius University was founded in 1962. More than 450 biochemists and 250 biophysics graduated from Vilnius University. For more than 30 years it was the only institution for education of biochemists and molecular biologists in Lithuania.
At the beginning, research was concentrated on the influence of vitamins, on the action of cytostatics and investigation of multienzyme complexes. Since 1970 the main research areas were investigation of specific interaction between nucleic acids and proteins and chemical modelling (chemical and enzymatic synthesis of nucleotide-peptides); structure and functions of biomembranes and bioenergetics; transport of nucleic acids through biomembranes.
During the last decade the department has established close contacts with Western institutions and the research interest has concentrated on molecular and cell biology.

INSTITUTE OF IMMUNOLOGY, VILNIUS UNIVERSITY 
The Institute is engaged in fundamental and applied research work in the field of immunology, immunochemistry, molecular biology and virusology in accordance with the following research trends approved by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania: studies on molecular and cellular regularities of the immunity functioning, studies on functional activity of the immune state as well as on factors which influence the latter.

The State Institute of Immunology was founded in 1990. The institute employs 80 people - four of them are habilitated doctors, 26 doctors of science and 6 post-graduates. The Institute takes part in international and national programs, prepares post-graduates in the fields of biomedicine, biology and medicine, immunology, serology and transplantation.

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOENGINEERING, VILNIUS GEDIMINAS TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
The Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering was established in 1996. It developed from the Department of Chemistry, which was opened in 1969. The Department has a research laboratory of Bioinformatics, which was established in 2001.

The Department faculty consists of 7 professors with habilitated doctor degree and 23 full-time and part-time docents with PhD. The Department has highly experienced team of professional lecturers. The studies are based on scientific research. The sponsors of the Department helped to build up a modern teaching base. The team of the faculty teaching for bioengineering students includes a full member and a corresponding member of the Lithuanian Acad. of Sci., researchers from the Institute of Biochemistryand the Institute of Biotechnology as well as from industrial companies Fermentas and Sicor Biotech. Students have access to the research laboratories at the Department as well as at the Instituteof Biochemistryand the Instituteof Biotechnology to perform instructive laboratory works and prepare their course thesis and graduation thesis