• Famous microbiologists
• Isachenko Boris Lavrentievich

Isachenko Boris Lavrentievich

Academician Boris Lavrentievich Isachenko

(15.06.1871 – 17.11. 1948) 

Boris Lavrentievich Isachenko was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a notary. In 1891, he graduated from the Alexander Gymnasium in Nikolaev (Novorossiya) and entered St. Petersburg University, where he joined a circle of young botanists headed by A.S. Famintsyn, A.N.Beketov and H.Ya. Gobi, who actively conducted a survey of parasitic fungi of the Kherson province.

After graduating from the university in 1895 with a first degree diploma, B.L. Isachenko was awarded the St. Petersburg University prize "In memory of the Congress of Doctors and Naturalists" and sent on a long business trip to Germany to study chemistry and plant physiology. His main teacher was Martin Beyerink, a Dutch microbiologist. Beyerink's interests at that time were related to the reduction of sulfates. As a result, the study of the sulfur cycle and the participation of microorganisms in it became one of the main scientific directions of B.L. Isachenko, who returned to St. Petersburg in 1896.

At that time, the State Council considered a project on the establishment of a Temporary bacteriological Laboratory at the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property. This project received the highest approval on 03/17/1896. B.L. Isachenko was accepted to the newly opened full-time position, who focused on identifying bacterial cultures that exterminate both field mice and ground squirrels, as well as harmful insects. This scientific direction has become the main one in the established laboratory. The practical application of scientific research allowed B.L. Isachenko to substantiate the necessary degree of virulence of the obtained drugs during cultivation of crops, as well as the shelf life with preservation of their activity. Basically, cultures of microorganisms were isolated from rats that died epizootically in St. Petersburg. The peculiarities of the resulting drug was that it not only led to intensive death of individuals, but also regularly updated the deadly epizootic among rats. He isolated and described a new microorganism, later named Bact. Issatschenkoi, harmless to humans and pets, but causing epizootics in mice. The need to create such a drug was due to the large number of rodents that caused significant economic damage. This work led to the use of a bacterial preparation for deratization.

In 1898, B.L. Isachenko began to read microbiology at Lesgaft, and in the spring of 1900 he became a privatdozent at St. Petersburg University. However, these lectures were without salary. Boris Lavrentievich was the first lecturer in St. Petersburg who expounded the doctrine of microorganisms from the department of higher education.

In 1900, B.L. Isachenko approached S.N. Vinogradsky, who was the largest Russian microbiologist, the founder of soil microbiology, with a proposal to create a microbiological society. Vinogradsky supported his proposal and the society was established. In 1916, at Kharkov University, Isachenko successfully defended his master's thesis "Research on the bacteria of the Arctic Ocean" and in 1918 was awarded the K. Baer Prize by the Russian Academy of Sciences for this work and headed the first Department of Microbiology in Russia, founded at St. Petersburg University. In the same year, the Temporary Bacteriological Laboratory at the Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property entered the system of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy and was renamed the Department of Agricultural Microbiology. The Department continued to conduct research work on the creation of methods to combat rodents, insects, bee diseases, and plant bacterioses.

In 1923, academician S.P. Kostychev was appointed head of the department, this year was a turning point in the department's activities. The main focus was on research on agronomic microbiology and all the few forces of the department focus on the study of soil biodynamics. These studies, which for the first time gave a microbiological characterization of the soils of the USSR, formed the basis for further work to clarify the role of microorganisms in soil fertility and to develop practical techniques for managing their vital activity in the soil. In May 1930, the Department of Agricultural Microbiology was allocated to an independent institution, the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology. Academician S.P. Kostychev became the first director of the Institute. In the same year, B.L. Isachenko, who was elected a corresponding member of the Academy in 1929, headed the Laboratory of General Microbiology at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine in Leningrad and formulated its tasks. At the same time, from 1902 to 1930, he was first an employee of the Botanical Garden, and from 1917 its director and B.L. Isachenko managed to reorganize the Main Botanical Garden into the Botanical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Defining the development of microbiology, Isachenko cared not about eliminating dissenters, but about attracting talented scientists. This was the way to create a multi-problematic, universal academic institute in its field, capable of carrying out expertise on a wide range of problems, conducting original research with modest material resources, having strong leaders with a minimum group of employees. Boris Lavrentievich's laboratory was also minimal, which he did not expand beyond the possibilities of his own constant attention. The administrative apparatus was also minimal. In 1934, B.L. Isachenko was awarded the degree of Doctor of Biological Sciences (without defending a doctoral dissertation on a set of works)

In 1937, B.L. Isachenko was invited by G.A. Nadson to the Institute of Microbiology in Moscow, founded by him in 1934. Almost immediately after his transfer, G.A. Nadson was arrested and shot. At first, Isachenko temporarily served as director, and since 1937 he headed the INMI, which became the country's leading scientific institution in the field of general microbiology. It conducted research on taxonomy, cytology, genetics, biochemistry and ecology of various groups of microorganisms, as well as in the field of industrial, soil and aquatic microbiology. A brilliant administrator and organizer of science, B.L. Isachenko actively attracted talented scientists to the institute, among whom were later well-known microbiologists S.I. Kuznetsov, E.N. Mishustin, N.D. Jerusalem, thanks to which in a short time it was possible to achieve outstanding scientific and applied successes with a very modest material and technical base. In 1941, after the outbreak of war, INMI was evacuated to Frunze, where Isachenko was able to organize intensive work on 12 scientific topics. He was the founder of many sections of environmental microbiology in Russia and the world, the first to study the microflora of the Arctic Ocean, where he first applied a sterile sampling method, also studied the microflora of the 5 main seas of the Fatherland and is rightfully recognized as the founder of marine microbiology, closely related to hydrology, hydrochemistry and hydrobiology.

Isachenko is the founder of geological microbiology, he developed the theory of biogenic formation of sulfur deposits and petroleum microbiology in connection with the genesis of oil. B.L. Isachenko also developed applied areas of microbiology by describing microorganisms harmless to humans and domestic animals, but causing epizootics in rats and mice, this method is still actively used. He investigated the method of enriching soil with nitrogen through the use of effective nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, investigated the causes of corrosion of concrete structures, as well as spontaneous combustion of grain in elevators. In 1946, B.L. Isachenko was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The study of the biospheric role of microorganisms and their participation in biogeochemical cycles, to which B.L. Isachenko devoted his life, is the main line of Russian microbiology. Many major representatives of modern microbiological science can be considered the "scientific great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren" of Boris Lavrentievich, one of his outstanding followers was his grandson, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Georgy Alexandrovich Zavarzin, who managed to raise the study of the biospheric role of microorganisms to a new level, brilliantly developed many areas of natural microbiology started by his grandfather.

For a long time, B.L. Isachenko was the editor-in-chief of the journal Microbiology, as well as the editor of the first journal in the world created by him, covering the issues of scientific seed science and seed control, Notes on Seed Science.

The work of B.L. Isachenko was awarded with commendations and awards: the Order of Lenin and the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" (1945), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1946), the Medal in memory of the 800th anniversary of Moscow (1948)

The scientific direction of B.L. Isachenko and his understanding of the role of general microbiology in natural science is actively developing at the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Microbiology and is becoming increasingly important for solving the problems of microbial ecotechnology.

Author: Professor I.A. Arkhipchenko

Sources::

1. To the 150th anniversary of the birth of Academician Boris Lavrentievich Isachenko years of life ((06/15/1871- 11/17/1948) // Microbiology. 2021, vol.90, No.4, pp.506-508.

2. To the 75th anniversary of Academician Georgy Alexandrovich Zavarzin // Microbiology. 2008, vol. 77, No.1, pp.132-134.

3. Zavarzin G.A. From the history of general microbiology in Russia. // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 1996. No. 6. pp. 521-529.

4. Isachenko B.L. Autobiography. A note on scientific activities and organizational work. Selected Works. Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. M-L., 1957, vol.III, pp.7-16.

5. Feoktistov A. Report on the activities of the agricultural and bacteriological laboratory for 1897. St. Petersburg, Printing House of St. Petersburg City Administration, 1898. p. 211.

6. Mishustin E.N. " Boris Lavrentievich Isachenko" Selected works. Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Moscow, 1957, vol. I, pp. 7-19.