Mirzabekov

Mirzabekov
Andrei Darievich

July 13 2003, passed away Professor Andrei Mirzabekov.
He continued his scientific activities till literally very last hours of his life. All his colleagues of EIMB admired his courage and unique strength of spirit. Andrei Mirzabekov has been leading EIMB for nearly 20 years, starting his carrier since his studentship years.
Andrei D. Mirzabekov, Ph.D., served as Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology (Moscow).

He was also professor and chairman of the Department of Molecular Biophysics at the Faculty of Physics-Chemical Biology at the Moscow Physics-Technical Institute and former Director of Biochip Technology Center at Argonne National Laboratory (1996-2001;USA).

Born in 1937, he majored in chemistry, graduated from the Institute of Fine Chemical Technology (Moscow) in 1962, and earned his Ph.D. Degree in 1965. From 1961 until the present time he is employed with the Engelhardt Institute starting from a technician in the laboratory headed by the late Academicians W. Engelhardt and A. Bayev.
A.Bayev described this period in his biography:” We put together a group of predominately young scientists in my laboratory, which included T.V. Venkstern, A.D. Mirzabekov, R.I. Tatarskaya, V.D. Axelrod, N.M. Abrosimova-Amelyanchik, A.I. Krutilina and L. Lee. Valine transport RNA of baker's yeast's was chosen for the determination of primary structure. The group's work was based on a strict division of labour. In the beginning A.D. Mirzabekov was responsible for the isolation of tRNA Val, T.V. Venkstern for that of paper chromatography and spectrophotometric determination, R.I. Tatarskaya for the isolation of the necessary enzymes, and V.D. Axelrod and I myself, we worked with column chromatography etc.
Finally, in 1967, this work resulted in the complete determination of Valine tRNA I primary structure. It proved to be among the first five tRNAs with known primary structures
A.D. Mirzabekov was awarded the State Prize for Science and Technology in 1969 for the studies on sequencing valine tRNA.
Bayev’s Group also undertook other research, such as the interaction with ribosomes, methylation and also the secondary structure of aggregated molecules. The research into this cycle was carried out mainly by A.D. Mirzabekov and results were published in a review (Methods in. Enzymology, v. XXIX, part E, pp. 643-661, Academic Press, N.Y.-London, 1974).
Walter Gilbert in his Nobel lecture, 8 December, 1980 told “another line of experiments was opened up by a new suggestion. Andrei Mirzabekov came to visit me in early 1975. The purpose of his visit was twofold: to describe experiments that he had been doing using dimethylsulfate to methylate the guanines and the adenines in DNA and to urge me to do a similar experiment with the lac repressor.” If they would not meet that time we probably did not have the Maxam-Gilbert method of the DNA sequencing.

Prof. Mirzabekov worked as a visiting scientist in the leading scientific laboratories of the world, including MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England (1971); California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (1975); and Harvard University, Boston (1975).
In late seventies, Andrei Mirzabekov organized and became the Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Organization of Chromatin, and Andrei was a mastermind behind the first success. The laboratory has created a model of the histone arrangement within the nucleosomal core particle. By using the unique method of DNA-protein zero-length crosslinking, Mirzabekov and his colleagues have received original data on the mapping the contact points between the histones and nucleosomal DNA. These data were widely used in the interpretation of the architecture of nucleosomal particle at that time. Numerous developments has included the localization of linker histones and HMG-14/-17 proteins within the nucleosomal fiber, transitions of chromatin structure in various molecular processes, evolutionary aspects of nucleosome conservatism and many others.
Andrei Mirzabekov became a classical scientist in the molecular organization of chromatin.
In 1984, after W. Engelhardt’s death, Andrei D. Mirzabekov became the Director of the Institute Molecular Biology, Moscow (Vavilov Str. 32).

Prof. Mirzabekov was elected Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1981. Since 1990, he has been a Member of the Academia Europaea and since 1998, a member of Germany’s Academia of Leopoldina. His scientific work earned the FEBS Anniversary Prize of 1978, the Gregor-Mendel Medaille of 1989 (Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina), and the Gold Engelhardt Medal of 1999 (Russian Academy of Sciences).

Together with Academician A. Bayev, Andrei Mirzabekov initiated and launched the Soviet (now Russian) Human Genome project.
The genome project rose like the Phoenix from the ashes of Cold Spring Harbor.
In October 1988 James D Watson was appointed as Associate Director at NIH, in charge of Genome Research Coordination.
When the USSR dissolved, the genome project survived as a component of the Russian science program, one of the few biology programs to actually carry on research despite the extremely tight resource constraints

Andrei Mirzabekov has been Vice-Chairman of that Human Genome project since 1988. He served as a member of the counsel and later on as a Vice-President (Director) of the International Human Genome Organization (HUGO) from 1989 to 1994, and has headed HUGO’s Moscow Office since 1991.
Andrei Mirzabekov initiated the development of the DNA sequencing by hybridization with oligonucleotides: a novel method in 1988. This method was a background for the
biotechnology that uses biological microchips to identify DNA structures rapidly, which is of great importance in the fight against a variety of diseases.

In 1993 Andrei Mirzabekov initiated the Joint Human Genome Program Between Argonne National Laboratory and the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology.
"The United States is the only country which offers the opportunity to develop science and its application in a very fast way. I am first a scientist, and as a scientist I have to think about what can get done in science," Mirzabekov said at the time.
He pledged, however, never to abandon the research in Russia: "I wouldn't want to be like a captain who leave his sinking ship" (from Brain Drain , Bryon MacWilliams , Moscow Times November 27, 1999).
At the Argonne National Lab, researchers want to put the bioarray-type biochip technology they co-designed with the Engelhardt Institute through its paces to head off a worldwide outbreak of tuberculosis (By Margaret Quan, EE Times, October 25, 1999).
(June 29, 1998) -- Rapid advances in medicine, health care and agriculture are expected from a joint-research project announced today byMotorola Inc., Packard Instrument Company and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.
Motorola will develop manufacturing processes to mass produce biochips, and Packard will develop and manufacture the analytical instruments to process and analyze the biochips. Argonne's contribution, in conjunction with its Moscow research partner the Russian Academy of Science's Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, is intellectual property in the form of 19 inventions related to biological microchips.( http://www.anl.gov/OPA/news98/news980629.)
“A successful scientific collaboration between Russia and the United States for developing microchips to process genetic information has collapsed in acrimony. The collaboration, which involved the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology (EIMB) in Moscow, the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and two US-based commercial partners, had provided substantial funding for the Moscow laboratory in exchange for access to its expertise in DNA/ chip technology. But in recent months, financial support for the Russian laboratory has dried up asEIMB and Argonne argue over the contractual arrangements between the parties. As a result of the dispute, Andrei Mirzabekov has
resigned as director of Argonne’s Biochip Technology Center” ( Nature, 412, 30 August, 2001).
Andrei Mirzabekov never left his Ship - The Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Moscow, right up till his tragic death. He kept his word as he always did.
Andrei Mirzabekov is the author of 22 Russian and international patents and more than 250 scientific publications. He published 26 papers just in 2001-2003 since he left the Argonne National Laboratory, USA.
James D. Watson and Andrei Mirzabekov kept friendly relations right up till Andrei’s death.
Prof. Mirzabekov was married to Natalya Romanova and had a daughter and a grandson. His leisure interests include mountain climbing, hiking, skiing, swimming, and monocycle riding. He also enjoyed classical music, ballets, and philosophical and historical books.
The most appropriate words that could characterize Andrei are: brilliant talent, intelligent, versatile, advanced views, captivate, fastidious, diligent, determined, impetuous, charming.
We all feel deep sorrow at his premature loss. We know that Andrei has many and many friends and colleagues abroad who will share with us and the family our grief.
You can contact EIMB via e-mail address: amir@eimb.ru