The life of Mukhit Kulmaganbetov was largely influenced by both his parents, as they studied at the Karaganda Medical Institute when Mukhit was born in 1991. Soon the family of young doctors moved to a small village Kalzhan Akhun in the Kyzylorda region, where Mukhit went to primary school. And in 2002, together with his parents, he moved to the Terenozek district center.

Both schools were small, studying was difficult, but interesting. And I have been interested in medicine since childhood. While my peers were playing outside with guns and cars, I was playing with microscopes and children's surgical instruments. Instead of fiction, he read medical books and encyclopedias. So there was no problem with choosing a college after school," Mukhit recalls.  

The young man had the opportunity to go to study under the Bolashak program in Malaysia, but his parents did not let him – it was too far from home, they said. In 2009, he became a student at Asfendiyarov Medical University in Almaty. Muhit studied very well at the university – with 3.98 GPA. After five years of bachelor's degree, there were two years of internship in surgery (he took it at the State Clinical Hospital No. 7 in Kalkaman), and Mukhit finally chose it as his profession. Since childhood, Muhit dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon, but, as he admits, this job puts you under great pressure, since the probability of a fatal outcome for patients is much higher than in other types of surgery. Therefore, he chose ophthalmology – a very painstaking and important work that requires knowledge, experience and steady hands.

"As they say in medicine, the eye is the outside brain. So I haven't gone too far from neurosurgery," Kulmaganbetov believes.

While studying at the university, as one of the best students, he began to periodically travel abroad for various programs: for advanced training courses, scientific conferences, training trainings.

"For me, a guy from the village, going to Almaty was once comparable to going into outer space. And when I first went abroad, of course, I was amazed," he says.

In 2017, while studying at the residency of the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Eye Diseases, Mukhit received an offer to enter a doctoral program at Cardiff University.

"They were interested in one of my reports on glaucoma. There was an opportunity to get into doctoral studies with Professor James Morgan – one of the best glaucoma specialists in the world. He is strict, very rarely teaches doctoral students, but I was lucky. He listened to me and decided to take me in on certain conditions: so that I delve into data science to write algorithms for an IT program for the study and diagnosis of eye diseases. I agreed," says Mukhit.

So Kulmaganbetov won a grant with a competition of a hundred applicants for one place to study at the world's leading eye disease university for free.

At the same time, he also continued his studies in the residency of the Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Eye Diseases. They reluctantly released the young man abroad, but the Kazakh supervisor nevertheless benefited from this: with the active participation of Kulmaganbetov, the Kazakh Institute of Eye Diseases and Cardiff University signed a memorandum of cooperation to actively exchange knowledge, information and technology. British specialists periodically visit Kazakhstan to hold conferences and exchange experience.

During his doctoral program in Cardiff, Mukhit conducted various studies and wrote codes for an AI program that can early detect apoptosis (death) of retinal cells. And then he took part in the creation of an optical tomograph. Thanks to this work, ophthalmologists can see at the molecular level changes in the retina that lead to glaucoma, age-related molecular degeneration (AMD) and Alzheimer's disease.

"This gives us the opportunity to prevent glaucoma or AMD which lead to blindness. While we cannot cure AMD or glaucoma, we are able to significantly slow down this process. Our work has been widely recognized in the scientific world, so we can say that we have made a breakthrough," Mukhit exclaims.

There are rumors in the scientific world that a guy from Kazakhstan working in Wales who can build optical systems.

I was contacted by physicists from Canada: Dushan Sharenaz and Dmitry Pushin, members of the Institute of Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. They needed a specialist who understands engineering, optoelectronics, IT, ophthalmology and quantum physics, which, of course, I studied, but not deeply. I had to catch up. They suggested to me to combine our efforts to create a microscope using quantized photons. And they gave me a choice, to join them at the University of Waterloo or to head the quantum ophthalmology laboratory being created in Hong Kong. I chose the latter," Mukhit clarifies.

The Hong Kong laboratory is located in the Eye Research Center, which is a subsidiary of the Canadian University of Waterloo and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. High-level specialists from various countries work here, and some projects are supervised, including by Nobel laureates. In the laboratory, Kulmaganbetov had two assistants and almost unlimited funding.

"Commercialization of science is encouraged in Hong Kong." We are located in a science park with accelerator, venture and investment centers. Funds are allocated in sufficient volume without unnecessary red tape. In Hong Kong, I easily received $1 million to purchase one device. And they also asked, "How many more do you need?" Our center is sponsored by the Canadian and Hong Kong governments, so the funding is consistently generous. But our salaries are low. However, scientists, including me, are used to living quite ascetically. The main thing is that we are given carte blanche for research," Mukhit says with conviction.

The scientific Canadian-Hong Kong group, which includes Mukhit, consists of seven people: four physicists, two psychophysicists and an ophthalmologist. All are from different countries: USA, Canada, UK, Russia, India/Hong Kong, Serbia and Kazakhstan. The curator of the group is David Corey, a Canadian-American professor, one of the best active quantum physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Institute of Quantum Computing. However, the scientific group members also have diplomas from MIT, Stanford, California University of Technology and other top universities.

"We have created two prototypes of a high-precision microscope for Canada and Hong Kong. They have not been mounted completely yet, because we are still changing some processes and adding something. But they are functional. Now we are working on miniaturizing and creating a full-fledged prototype. We want to sell our devices so that ophthalmologists can use them all over the world," Kulmaganbetov says.

To do this, Mukhit and his scientific partners have created a company Structured Light Tomography in the USA. Kulmaganbetov was appointed CEO of the company. The preliminary estimate of the startup is $5 million, but in the near future scientists plan to increase this amount three times.

"In Cardiff, I developed a machine learning program and a method, but now I am creating an engineering technology that combines quantum physics and ophthalmology. That is, I am developing technologies at the junction of three sciences: medicine, IT and quantum physics. I am the only ophthalmologist in the world who is building the world's first quantum technology in ophthalmology," the scientist adds. 

The device will work using a quantized photon. According to Mukhit, this type of photon has been used in quantum communications quite recently.

"How does a quantized photon differ from an ordinary one? If an ordinary photon is sent to a distance of, say, a light-year, then it will come to the destination point already changed, because it partially changes, collapses, its phase, amplitude and polarization may change; aberrations occur - it will not be the same as it was at the time of sending. And we cannot use ordinary photons as an information carrier. But we can use quantized photons. Because passing through different objects and spaces, it can collapse, change, but at the same time it has ability to restore – "self-treatment". Its initial structure at the destination point will be the same as at the time of sending. Regardless of the distance to which you send it. The 2022 Nobel Prize was awarded to three physicists for their research on these photons. I am familiar with one of these scientists, Anton Zeilinger, and he also follows the results of our research," Kulmaganbetov explained.

The scientist added that quantized photons can be used in ophthalmology: people who are already susceptible to AMD, even at the initial stage, either do not see quantized photons at all, or see them very poorly.  

"This is only one of the applications of our microscope. There are other areas, including those used for scientific purposes. Ten years ago, quantum physics and ophthalmology practically did not have anything in common. Today, quantum ophthalmology is already a reality. This direction allows us to expand our research on eye diseases, their diagnosis and treatment. I think there are only two ways to immortalize yourself, your name. The first is to leave behind a genome, that is, to give birth to children. The second is to immortalize oneself through scientific research and works of art," Mukhit believes.

Speaking about a possible return to Kazakhstan, Mukhit noted that it would be difficult for him to study science in isolation from current colleagues and opportunities.

"But I have never severed ties with the motherland. I believe that thanks to the memoranda concluded, including through my cooperation with various institutions, I am helping Kazakh specialists. I have an idea to build a third microscope for Kazakhstan, so that we can detect glaucoma, AMD and other diseases in the early stages. I am engaged in science that will help not only our country, but also the whole world. At least, I hope so," Mukhit Kulmaganbetov concludes. 

Author: Damir Serikpaev