Gamaleya Nikolay Fedorovich: life on the altar of science

😉 Hello dear readers! Thank you for choosing the article “Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaleya: Life on the Altar of Science” on this site! The old Cossack surname comes from the nickname that the Ottomans gave to the ambassador of Hetman Khmelnitsky. In Turkish, “gamaleya” means “mighty”.

Biography of Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaley

The father of our hero, a descendant of a Zaporozhets, fought with the French. Grandfather was a head physician, the author of a treatise on the prevention of anthrax. The Gamaleys lived in Odessa, where on February 17, 1859 they had their 12th child – their son Nikolai. He took over the selfless bravery of the Zaporozhets ancestor and the medical talent of his grandfather.

Young years

After leaving school, Nikolai entered the Novorossiysk University. The young man listened to lectures by microbiologist Ilya Mechnikov, botanist Lev Tsenkovsky, physiologist Alexander Kovalevsky … And during the holidays he traveled to Strasbourg, where he worked in the laboratory of chemist Hoppe-Seiler.

After receiving his diploma, he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Military Medicine. The young man knew what he would devote his life to. He, like his grandfather, was worried about the prevention of infections.

Theory and practice

In Odessa, Gamaleya gets a job at a hospital where the eminent bacteriologist Osip Mochutkovsky works. And he cooperates with Mechnikov: he equips his own laboratory, in which, at the request of his mentor, he experiments with tubercle bacilli.

A little later, on the recommendation of Mechnikov, Nikolai went to the Pasteur Institute to study vaccinations against rabies. In Paris, Gamaleya not only mastered vaccination. He convinced Pasteur to open a vaccination station in Odessa – the first of its kind in Russia.

In a station equipped in his home, Gamaleya vaccinates patients and improves and finalizes vaccines. Moreover, he checks the activity, the safety of new components on himself.

Soon Pasteur turned to Gamaleya. He asks his student to help figure out why his method began to fail. Having sorted out and returned to Odessa, Gamaleya focused on a new problem – the fight against cholera. He determined that Vibrio cholerae synthesizes two poisons and defended his thesis on this topic.

Moving from theory to action, Gamaleya invests personal savings in the creation of the Bacteriological Institute. And he begins training specialists for diagnostics, preparation of sera and treatment of viral diseases.

Plague conqueror

Continuing the experiments, Gamaleya – the first in the world – establishes a link between the spread of infections and the state of water supply and sewerage. True, only years later, science agreed with his thesis that cholera is transmitted with water.

Gamaleya can also be called the “father” of pest control, as he proved that typhus is carried by lice. Odessa at that time was tormented by outbreaks of plague. Another happened in 1902, but thanks to the efforts of Nikolai Gamaley, it was extinguished in 12 days.

The scientist insisted that the sanitary service exterminate all port rats, and this stopped the expansion of the disease. Later, the plague control system developed by the Odessa virologist was introduced in port cities.

“Favorite” microbes

So the microbiologist Gamaleya called the causative agents of consumption. As you know, this disease is determined, and every 10th inhabitant of the empire died from it with tuberculin preparations. The scientist proposed a new, faster way of growing tubercle bacilli to produce tuberculin.

This method was adopted by Robert Koch, and it is used to get the BCG vaccine today. It is worth noting that many of Nikolai Gamaley’s ideas were ahead of their time. But the drug he created for tuberculosis, despite its high efficiency, was introduced into production only in the second half of the twentieth century.

Even Nikolai Fedorovich “predicted” the presence of the genome, the mechanism of bacteriophagy, the role of hyaluronic acid in tissue regeneration … And he developed the theory of the viral nature of oncological formations, which is now popular.

In 1912, Dr. Gamaleya was offered the post of chief bacteriologist and director of the vaccinated institute in St. Petersburg. He plunges headlong into the case. Improves vaccines, creates new drugs, edits the journal “Hygiene and Sanitation”, trains doctors.

In the Land of the Soviets

Passionate about his work, Gamaleya seems oblivious to either the revolution or the civil war. However, as a result of this work, Lenin’s government manages to suppress smallpox among the Red Army, which helps to strengthen power.

Since the beginning of the 30s, the doctor of medicine has headed the Central Institute of Microbiology and the Department of the Moscow Medical Institute. He is an academician and chairman of the All-Union Society of Epidemiologists, Microbiologists and Infectious Diseases. During the war, he did not stop experimenting and studied tuberculosis with renewed vigor.

Academician Gamaleya: heirs and legacy

Fyodor Gamaleya, the son of Nikolai Fyodorovich, continued the dynasty. At the height of the Stalinist repressions, he worked in Transbaikalia, but, alas, he did not escape arrest. However, the accusation was so absurd – the young researcher was charged with an attempt to “poison the Amur River” that after a year and a half Fedor, already completely gray-haired, was released.

The grandson of Nikolai Fedorovich (full namesake) became the surgeon who was the first in the Soviet Union to master the laser “scalpel”.

But back to the main character. It is not possible to list all his discoveries, scientific works, awards, the scientist’s legacy is so great. In the post-war period he was awarded the status of Honored Scientist. They were awarded several state prizes, two Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor.

The great companion passed away on March 29, 1949. Over the past 90 years, Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaleya has repeatedly infected himself with rabies and cholera in order to test the effectiveness of the drugs he created.

The last time the patriarch of Russian microbiology infected himself with tuberculosis was 85 in order to try a new drug again. Once again, he defeated disease in the name of humanity. Isn’t this a feat?

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