Dr. Alexander E Dontsov graduated from Moscow State University in 1971 and received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry at Moscow State University in 1978. He subsequently worked as an Assistant Scientist and Senior Scientist at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, from 1975 to 1996. Dr. A.E. Dontsov has worked as a Leading Researcher at the Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, from 1996 to the present. In 2006, he received a Doctor of Sciences degree in Biophysics from the Institute of Biochemical Physics. He has worked as a visiting researcher at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Silesian Medical Academy, Katowice, Poland (1988-1990; 1994-1995; 1997-1998; 1999-2006); the Department of Cell and Structural Biology, University of Manchester, UK (1991); the Zoological Station at the University of Helsinki, Finland (1994-1999); the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, USA (1997); the Department of Biophysics and Biomedical Optics, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA (1998-1999); and the Department of Basic Spectroscopy, Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus (2002-2004; 2005-2006). Dr. A.E. Dontsov is the author of 155 peer-reviewed papers and 16 patents for inventions. His research keywords and expertise include antioxidant and redox biology, retinal pigment epithelial cells, glycation stress, light damage, and pigment granules.

Prof. Mikhail A. Ostrovsky, ostrovsky3535@mail.ru Prof. Mikhail A. Ostrovsky graduated from the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University. He worked as a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1990, and an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1994.  Prof. Mikhail A Ostrovsky has served as the President of the Pavlov Physiological Society of Russia since 2007. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Sensory Systems" published by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the editorial board of the journals "Reports of the Academy of Sciences", "Bulletin of Moscow University", and "Aerospace and Environmental Medicine". He has been awarded the Order of Friendship, the Order of Honor, and the Order of Aleksandr Nevskii, and the medal “Resident of Siege Leningrad”. He is a double laureate of the Russian Government Prize. He was also awarded the Sechenov Golden Medal (2004) and the Ovchinnikov prize (2012) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests are molecular and comparative physiology and biophysics of vision; the retina, rhodopsin, retinal pigment epithelium, and the lens of the eye; pigment systems for protecting against the danger of light damage; mechanisms for maintaining the transparency of the lens; and lens opacification (cataractogenesis).