REVIEW: “If I Were in Nature’s Place, I Would Do It Like This...” Life and Hypotheses of Alexey Olovnikov

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Natalia I. Olovnikova¹, Ivan A. Olovnikov^2,a*, and Alla I. Kalmykova³

¹National Medical Research Renter for Hematology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 125167 Moscow, Russia

²Biovision Ventures, L-2449 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

³Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received July 12, 2023; Revised September 25, 2023; Accepted September 25, 2023

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In this article, we commemorate the life and scientific journey of the brilliant gerontologist-theorist Alexey Olovnikov (1936-2022). In 1971, he published his famous “marginotomy” hypothesis, in which he predicted the replicative shortening of telomeres and its role as a counter of cell divisions and biological age of an organism. This work put forth several remarkable assumptions, including the existence of telomerase, which were confirmed two decades later. Despite this, Alexey Olovnikov moved further in his theoretical studies of aging and proposed a series of new hypotheses that seem no less exotic than the marginotomy hypothesis once appeared. Alexey Olovnikov had an extraordinary way of looking at biological problems and, in addition to aging, authored striking concepts about development, biorhythms, and evolution.

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KEY WORDS: Olovnikov, marginotomy, telomeres, aging, printomeres, chronomeres

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297923110019

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