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Lina Solomonovna Stern (August 26, 1878–March 7, 1968) was a notable Soviet biochemist
Biochemist

Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms....
, physiologist and humanist
Humanist

Humanist may refer to:* a proponent of the group of ethical stances referred to as Humanism* a figure in the European intellectual movement known as Renaissance Humanism...
 whose medical discoveries saved thousands of lives at the fronts of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. She is best known for her pioneering work on blood-brain barrier
Blood-brain barrier

The blood-brain barrier is a metabolic or cellular structure in the central nervous system that restricts the passage of various chemical substances and microscopic objects between the bloodstream and the neural tissue itself, while still allowing the passage of substances essential to metabolism function ....
, which she described as hemato-encephalic barrier in 1921.

Life and career
Born in Libava
Liepaja

Liepaja is a city in western Latvia on the Baltic sea and the administrative center of Liepaja 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 Latvia
Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
) into a Jewish family and educated in Geneva
Geneva

Geneva is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie . Situated where the Rh?ne River exits Lake Geneva , it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, she pursued a brilliant academic career and performed original research in biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry 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 neuroscience
Neuroscience

Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. The Society for Neuroscience was founded in 1969, but the study of the brain started a long time ago....
s.






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Encyclopedia


Lina Solomonovna Stern (August 26, 1878–March 7, 1968) was a notable Soviet biochemist
Biochemist

Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms....
, physiologist and humanist
Humanist

Humanist may refer to:* a proponent of the group of ethical stances referred to as Humanism* a figure in the European intellectual movement known as Renaissance Humanism...
 whose medical discoveries saved thousands of lives at the fronts of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. She is best known for her pioneering work on blood-brain barrier
Blood-brain barrier

The blood-brain barrier is a metabolic or cellular structure in the central nervous system that restricts the passage of various chemical substances and microscopic objects between the bloodstream and the neural tissue itself, while still allowing the passage of substances essential to metabolism function ....
, which she described as hemato-encephalic barrier in 1921.

Life and career


Born in Libava
Liepaja

Liepaja is a city in western Latvia on the Baltic sea and the administrative center of Liepaja 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 Latvia
Latvia

Latvia The Latvians are a Baltic peoples culturally related to the Estonians and Lithuanians, with the Latvian language having many similarities with Lithuanian language, but not with the Estonian language....
) into a Jewish family and educated in Geneva
Geneva

Geneva is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie . Situated where the Rh?ne River exits Lake Geneva , it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, she pursued a brilliant academic career and performed original research in biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry 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 neuroscience
Neuroscience

Neuroscience is a field devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. The Society for Neuroscience was founded in 1969, but the study of the brain started a long time ago....
s. From 1918 onwards she was the first woman awarded professional rank at the University of Geneva
University of Geneva

The University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a Theology seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for the Enlightenment scholarship....
, being a Professor of chemio
Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
-physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
, and researching cellular oxidation
Cellular respiration

Cellular respiration is the set of the metabolism reactions and processes that take place in organisms' cell s to convert Energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate , and then release waste products....
.

In 1925 she had emigrated to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 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 Committee
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee

The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed in Samara, Russia in April 1942 with the official support of the Soviet authorities. It was designed to influence international public opinion and organize political and material support for the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany, particularly from the Western world....
 (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 Taraz
Taraz

Taraz , formerly Talas, Zhambyl , and Aulie-Ata is a city and a center of the Zhambyl Province in Kazakhstan. It is located in the south of Kazakhstan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, on the Talas River ....
), Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the List of countries by area as well as the world's largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km? ....
.

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.

See also

  • Gulag
    Gulag

    The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. Gulag is the Russian acronym for The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies of the NKVD....


External links

  • by Irina Lukyanova (Vestnik journal)
  • by V.B. Malkin (russcience)
  • by N.A. Grigoryan (russcience)
  • 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