Researchers at the M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences have collaborated with their colleagues from the A.N. Severtsova Institute of Ecology and Evolution in groundbreaking research work in which they discovered the homeobox gene Anf / Hesx1 in lampreys. It is the most ancient gene in modern vertebrates. The research findings that they published in Scientific Reports support the hypothesis that the appearance of this gene in vertebrates created the conditions necessary for the emergence of the telencephalon.