ISSN 0006-2979, Biochemistry (Moscow), 2024, Vol. 89, No. 10, p. 1659 © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2024.
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EDITORIAL NOTES
Preface to the Special Issue “Amino Acid Metabolism
in Human Health and Disease”: On the 100th Anniversary
of the Birth of Academician Temirbolat T. Berezov
Vadim S. Pokrovsky
e-mail: v.pokrovsky@ronc.ru
DOI: 10.1134/S0006297924100018
Temirbolat Tembolatovich Berezov
(Photo provided by the family)
This year, on October 19, we celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Academician Temirbolat
Tembolatovich Berezov, the founder of the Department
of Biochemistry at the People’s Friendship University
(RUDN). He established a student laboratory at the
RUDN, recruited the first team of teachers, and wrote
a textbook that has remained a staple for all medi-
cal students in the Soviet Union for over 30 years.
Berezov’s areas of research had mainly been focused
on the properties of amino acid and polyamine metab-
olism in cancer and other human diseases. This issue
of Biochemistry (Moscow) continues to acquaint our
readers with this research topic, with a special focus
on amino acid metabolism in health and disease.
As a scientist, teacher, and public figure, Temirbolat
Berezov had followed the best traditions of the Rus-
sian school of biochemistry founded by A. E. Braun-
stein, B. I. Zbarsky, S. R. Mardashev, and S. E. Severin.
He had brought these traditions to a new generation
of researchers and created his own scientific school.
Berezov had devoted significant efforts to the creation
of educational and tutorial literature. Together with
Professor B. F. Korovkin, he wrote the fundamental
textbook Biological Chemistry, that was recommended
by the USSR Ministry of Health as a major textbook for
medical students and had gone through three editions.
The second edition was translated into English in 1992.
Berezov’s scientific interests had included molec-
ular basis of malignant cell growth, in particular, the
features of nitrogen metabolism in tumor cells, regu-
lation of enzyme activity and synthesis in carcinogen-
esis, and application of enzymes in cancer treatment.
His achievements also include deciphering the mech-
anisms involved in the regulation of synthesis and ac-
tivity of important nitrogen metabolism enzymes in
various types of human and animal tumors.
Temirbolat Berezov published more than 700
scientific papers, 4 monographs, 20 textbooks and
teaching aids, and authored 34 patents and copyright
certificates for original diagnostic and enzyme puri-
fication methods. For several decades, Berezov had
been the Chairman of the Dissertation Council, Chair-
man of the RUDN Ethics Commission, Vice-president
of the Biochemical Society of the USSR and the Rus-
sian Federation, and editorial board member of two
international and five Russian journals. Twenty-seven
Doctorate and 50 Ph. D. candidates defended their the-
ses under his supervision.
People who personally knew Temirbolat Berezov–
his friends, colleagues, and students – have always
noted his discipline, diligence, tact, and attention to
detail. The scientific school created by Temirbolat
Berezov at the RUDN Department of Biochemistry has
been awarded prestigious scientific prizes: 1987 –
Gulevich Prize for a series of works in the field of tu-
mor enzyme therapy; 1989 – USSR Ministry of Higher
Education Award for the best research work; 1994 –
Pirogov Prize; 2001 – Russian Federation Government
Prize; 2002 – Presidium of the Russian Academy of
Medical Sciences Prize; 2023 – Moscow Government
Prize. The experience accumulated by the veterans
of the Biochemistry Department has been adopted by
younger teachers, who preserve and continue tradition
developed at this department, which since 2014, has
been named after Temirbolat Tembolatovich Berezov.
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