On March 29, a meeting was held on the Zoom platform between the employees of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies and the employees of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology of Germany. It should be noted that the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is headed by Professor Paabo Svante, who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 2022. Swedish scientist received this award for reading the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes. The meeting took place with the consent of Professor Paabo Svante. At the meeting, the executive director of the institute, associate professor Alamdar Mammadov, head of the international Proteomics laboratory, PhD Ismayil Zulfugarov, head of the Population Genomics laboratory, PhD, Associate Professor Nurmammad Mustafayev, junior researcher of the same laboratory, PhD student Zarintaj Rustamova, PhD student and engineer-programmer of the Computational Structural Biology laboratory Lala Ibadullayeva joined the meeting from Azerbaijan, and Professor Johannes Krause, head of the Department of Archaeogenetics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Harald Ringbauer, PhD, leader of “Haplogroup” of that department, joined the meeting from Germany.

During the meeting, information was given about the research conducted in both scientific institutions, it was emphasized that there is no research in the direction of molecular anthropology in Azerbaijan, and there is almost no information in the world scientific community about the anthropological and other biological materials obtained from the archaeological excavations in the South Caucasus, especially in Azerbaijan. The parties assessed the possibilities of training experts capable of conducting joint research in the field of antic DNA in Azerbaijan and establishing a suitable laboratory here. In June-July of this year, Zarintaj Rustamova was invited to do an internship at the Max Planck Institute for 3 weeks. In the end, the representatives of Azerbaijan said that director of the institute, Academician Irada Huseynova invited the German scientists to Azerbaijan. The same proposal was voiced by German colleagues.