On June 29, the defense of dissertations for the PhD degree of two young employees was held at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologi̇es of ANAS. Director of the Institute, vice-president of ANAS, academic Irada Huseynova said that the 90th anniversary of the world-famous scientist, the founder of new directions of biological sciences in Azerbaijan, academic Jalal Aliyev is on June 30. Every year, on the birthday of the greatly respected teacher, defense of dissertations is a continuation of the tradition that established in 2005. Now, after the death of the scientist, this tradition is dedicated to the memory of Jalal Aliyev as the expression of deep respect of his students.

The theme of the dissertation of junior researcher of Bioadaptation laboratory Samra Mirazayeva was “Diagnostics and identification of viruses infecting Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants, grown in Azerbaijan and the study of changes induced by pathogenesis”. The young researcher said that viral diseases was monitored in tomato plants for the first time in all regions of Azerbaijan and their initial diagnostics and identification methods were developed. Then senior researcher of the laboratory of Enzymology of Photosynthetic Carbon Assimilation Taliyya Orujova presented her dissertation on the theme "Regulation of daily cycles of photosynthetic enzymes in some CAM and C4 plants spread in the flora of Azerbaijan". 

The dissertation was dealing with the study of the ecological and biochemical characteristics of C4 and CAM species spread in the Azerbaijan flora. Both theses were highly appreciated by members of the dissertation council, which decided that they deserved to be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biology.