Ivan Y. Iourov — PhD, Doctor of Science (Equal to Habilitation), professor of Russian Academy of Natural History — is currently the head of laboratory of molecular brain genetics at Research Center of Mental Health (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences), Moscow, Russia. IY Iourov was born in 1981, Moscow, Russia (formerly USSR). He’s actively involved in biomedical research since 1999. He received his PhD (topic: Epigenetic and genetic features of Rett syndrome) in 2004. In 2011, he became Doctor of Science (Habilitation) (project title: Structural and functional genome organization in brain diseases). In 2008, Dr. Iourov together with his colleagues founded the journal Molecular Cytogenetics (BiomedCentral/Springer), where he currently serves as managing and section (medical genetics) editor. He has served as guest editor in a special issue of Current Genomics (Volume 11, Number 6, 2010) and a book entitled “Human interphase chromosomes: the biomedical aspects” by Springer. Currently, his work is dedicated to uncovering mechanisms of brain diseases using advanced molecular and cellular technologies (i.e. identification of cellular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and ataxia-telangiectasia). The results of his research have been presented in 136 research articles and book chapters. He serves as reviewer in more than 50 peer-review journals (ad hoc and permanently). Prof. Iourov’s work has been distinguished by 14 local and international awards, among which SciVal/Scopus Award Russia 2012 (Elsevier prize, nomination: medicine).