Lina Solomonovna Stern (August 26, 1878–March 7, 1968) was a notable Soviet
biochemistBiochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
, physiologist and humanist whose medical discoveries saved thousands of lives at the fronts of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She is best known for her pioneering work on
blood-brain barrierThe blood-brain barrier is a separation of circulating blood and cerebrospinal fluid maintained by the choroid plexus in the central nervous system . Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a separation of circulating blood and...
, which she described as
hemato-encephalic barrier in 1921.
Life and career
Born in
LibavaLiepāja , historical variant: Libau, is a city in western Latvia on the Baltic sea and the administrative center of Liepāja district. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
in the Russian Empire (today's
LatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , and to the southeast by Belarus . Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden...
) into a Jewish family and educated in
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
,
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, she pursued a brilliant academic career and performed original research in
biochemistryBiochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
and in the
neuroscienceNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Such studies span the structure, function, evolutionary history, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, informatics, computational neuroscience and pathology of the nervous system.The International Brain Research...
s. From 1918 onwards she was the first woman awarded professional rank at the
University of GenevaThe University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a theological seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873 it dropped its religious...
, being a Professor of
chemioChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
-
physiologyPhysiology is the science of the functioning of living systems. It is a subcategory of biology...
, and researching
cellular oxidationCellular respiration is one of the key ways a cell gains useful energy. It is the set of the metabolic reactions and processes that take place in organisms' cells to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate , and then release waste products...
.
In 1925 she had emigrated to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
out of ideological convictions. From 1925–1948 she served as Professor of the 2nd Medical Institute and from 1929–1948, the Director of Institute of Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Among many problems Stern and her scientific group worked on were longevity and sleep. Under her leadership multidisciplinary groups of colleagues worked on the problems of the hemato-encephalic and histohematic barriers. The results of this work were later implemented in clinical practice and saved thousands of lives at the fronts of World War II. In 1939 she became the first female full member of the Academy. In 1943 she won the Stalin Prize.
Activism and persecutions
A member of the Women's Anti-Fascist Committee and the
Jewish Anti-Fascist CommitteeThe Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed in Kuibyshev in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities...
(JAC) since 1942, Stern was the sole survivor out of fifteen arrested (one person died in prison, thirteen were executed) when the JAC was eradicated by Stalin in January 1949. She was sentenced to a prison term, followed by five-year exile to Dzhambul (current
TarazTaraz , formerly Talas, Jambyl and Aulie-Ata is a city and a center of the Jambyl Province in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south of Kazakhstan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, on the Talas River...
),
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
.
After rehabilitation
After Stalin's death in 1953 Lina Stern was allowed to return to Moscow and in 1954–1968 she headed the Department of Physiology at Biophysics Institute.
External links
Star called Lina by Irina Lukyanova (Vestnik journal)
Difficult Years of Lina Stern by V.B. Malkin (russcience)
First Woman Academic by N.A. Grigoryan (russcience)
Lina Solomonovna Stern (1878-1968) by R.A Chaurina (nature.web.ru)
Further reading
- Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee by Joshua Rubenstein. ISBN 0-300-08486-2