The 50th Anniversary of the M. M. Shemyakin & Yu. A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

Under the February 20, 1959, Resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Institute for Chemistry of Natural Products was founded within the Academy’s Chemical Sciences Division. The institution would go on to play an important part in the development of Russian physical and chemical biology. The founding of the Institute was brought about by the rapid developments in the chemistry of bioactive compounds, the natural products among them, and reflected the growing importance of this field in understanding the mechanisms of biological processes and in development of new medicinal preparations.

Full Text

The leader of the natonal antibiotics chemistry, academician Mikhail Mikhailovich Shemyakin, was appointed head of the Institute, and he managed to lure the best specialists working in different fields: in the chemistry of carbohydrates, V.N. Orekhovitch and V.M. Stepanov; in the chemistry of antibiotics, future academicians A.S. Khokhlov and M.N. Kolosov, as well as future corresponding member V.K. Antonov; and in the chemistry of lipids, future corresponding member L.D. Bergelson. Recent graduates from higher educational institutions also joined the team and later became members of the USSR Academy of Sciences; they retained, to a significant degree, the scientific identity of the Institute (Yu.A. Ovchinnikov, V.F. Bystrov, E.V. Grishin, V.T. Ivanov, A.I. Miroshnikov and E.D. Sverdlov). After a short period of time, the Institute became a top scientific establishment in its field in the country, actively interacting with the international community (multiple publications in foreign magazines and broad participation in international symposia).