Prof. Dr. Alexander A. Makarov is Director of EIMB of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He received his M.S. (Honours) in Biophysics in 1973 and Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1977 from M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. He was a member of the Scientific Coordinating Council, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, and the Grant Awarding Council of the Russian Federation Government. Currently, he is a member of the Presidential Council on Science and Education. His research interests span physical biochemistry of proteins, protein engineering, protein thermodynamics, calcium signal transduction in health and disease, ribonucleases as anticancer agents, gel-based microarrays, and molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease.