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Foresight into the Future of Genetic Engineering and Radiobiology: 100 Years from the Beginning of N.V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky’s Scientific Career

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Abstract

In 2021, it has been 100 years since the beginning of the scientific career of the famous radiobiologist and geneticist Prof. Nikolay V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky. Among the scientific fields he developed from 1921 to 1981 were physical biology, genetic engineering, the amplifier principle, and population radiobiology. However, it would be unfair to consider that Timofeeff-Ressovsky’s creative contribution was limited to the confines of his laboratory. On the contrary, his unstoppable and passionate creative mind required the expansion of scientific contacts with the world’s best laboratories, biologists, physicists and chemists. This article highlights the connection between the creativity of N.V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky and the works of his contemporaries, as well as the fruitful ideas of today.

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  1. Nikolai K. Koltsov (1872–1940) was a Russian biologist, the founder of the Russian Soviet school of experimental biology, and the author of the fundamental idea of matrix synthesis of chromosomes.

  2. Sergey N. Skadovskiy (1886–1962) was a Russian and Soviet hydrobiologist, the creator of the ecological-physiological trend in hydrobiology.

  3. Dmitry D. Romashov (1899–1963) was a Soviet geneticist, Doctor of Biological Sciences (1942). Discoverer of the phenomenon of “gene drift.” He graduated from Moscow State University in 1921. In 1921–1942 he worked at the Institute of Experimental Biology. From 1953 to 1955 he worked in the Institute of Forestry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, from 1955 to 1963 in the Laboratory of Radiation Genetics of the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

  4. Georgy A. Zedgenidze (1902–1994) was a Soviet radiologist, academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. He was the founder and the first director of the Institute of Medical Radiology of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences.

  5. Zhores A. Medvedev (1925–2018) was a Soviet molecular radiobiologist and writer.

  6. Nikolay P. Bochkov (1931–2011) was a Soviet and Russian medical geneticist who studied the effect of ionizing radiation on human chromosomes and worked on the problems of chemical mutagenesis. Organizer and first director of the Institute of Medical Genetics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

  7. Nikita N. Moiseev (1917–2000) was a Soviet and Russian scientist in the field of general mechanics and applied mathematics, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. He led research on the development of a mathematical model of the ecological consequences of nuclear war—the phenomenon of “nuclear winter.”

  8. Yury Mikhailovich Svirezhev (1938–2007) was a major specialist in the field of mathematical biology. A graduate of the MIPT Faculty of Aerophysics who became a biologist.

  9. Sergey S. Chetverikov (1880–1959) was a Russian and Soviet biologist, geneticist-evolutionist who took the first steps toward synthesizing Mendelian genetics and Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory.

  10. Oleg G. Gazenko (1918–2007) was a Soviet and Russian physiologist, one of the founders of space medicine, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

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This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Medical Research Radiological Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Obninsk, Russia

    I. D. Klabukov, A. O. Yakimova, D. S. Baranovskii, E. M. Yatsenko, V. A. Petrov, L. P. Zhavoronkov, S. A. Ivanov, P. V. Shegay & A. D. Kaprin

  2. Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), Moscow, Russia

    I. D. Klabukov, D. S. Baranovskii, S. A. Ivanov & A. D. Kaprin

  3. Obninsk Institute for Nuclear Power Engineering of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Obninsk, Russia

    I. D. Klabukov

  4. Hertzen Moscow Oncology Research Institute, Branch of the National Medical Research Radiological Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

    P. V. Shegay & A. D. Kaprin

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  1. I. D. Klabukov
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  2. A. O. Yakimova
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Correspondence to I. D. Klabukov.

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Klabukov, I.D., Yakimova, A.O., Baranovskii, D.S. et al. Foresight into the Future of Genetic Engineering and Radiobiology: 100 Years from the Beginning of N.V. Timofeeff-Ressovsky’s Scientific Career. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 50, 3407–3412 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359023120129

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