He received a PhD in Biophysics at the Institute of Experimental Biology, Armenian Academy of Science in 1988. In 1994 Dr Rychkov immigrated to Australia and started a post-doctoral position with Prof Alan Bretag at the University of South Australia investigating gating properties of skeletal muscle chloride channels. In 2002 he was awarded ARC Research Fellowship and in 2007 NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. His current research investigates the roles of store-operated Ca2+ channels and transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channels in the functions of animal cells.