Zinaida Yermolyeva

Zinaida Vissarionovna Yermolyeva (Russian: Зинаида Виссарионовна Ермольева; 24 October [O.S. 12 October] 1898 – 2 December 1974) was a Soviet microbiologist of Don Cossack origin most notable for producing penicillin for the Soviet military during World War II. She was a member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences at the time of her death.^[1]

Zinaida Yermolyeva
Зинаида Ермольева
Yermolyeva on a 2023 postcard of Russia
Born	Zinaida Vissarionovna Yermolyeva (1898-10-24)24 October 1898 Frolovo, Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire
Died	2 December 1974(1974-12-02) (aged 76) Moscow, Soviet Union
Alma mater	Southern Federal University
Known for	Inventor of Penicillin in the Soviet Union
Awards	Order of Lenin
Scientific career
Fields	Microbiology, epidemiology

Career

In 1921, Yermolyeva graduated from the medical faculty of Donskoy University. From 1925 on, she acted as the head of several microbiology and epidemiology institutes in Moscow.^[2]

In 1925, Yermolyeva was appointed head of the Department of Microbial Biochemistry at the USSR Academy of Sciences. There, she began her research on bacteriophages and naturally-occurring antimicrobial agents—lysozyme in particular. During the Second World War, she and Tamara Balezina isolated a penicillin-producing strain of Penicillium crustosum. It was first used in Soviet hospitals in 1943.^{[3][4]: 130}

In 1942, she published the results of an experiment performed on herself, where she infected herself by drinking a solution of Vibrio cholerae and recovered after treatment.^[5] The results of her research were seen as essential in preventative measures against cholera in Russia's war efforts in the Eastern Front of World War II.^[2][6]

In 1947, Yermolyeva became the director of the newly formed Institute of Antibiotics of the USSR Ministry of Public Health.^[7] From 1952 until her death, she headed the Department of Microbiology of the Central Post-Graduate Medical Institute in Moscow (now the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education).^[2]

Yermolyeva was married to the microbiologist Lev Zilber, whose brother, the novelist Veniamin Kaverin used the career of Yermolyeva and her husband as a basis for a fictionalized account in his trilogy Open Book (1949–56).^[8] The "lively and realistic" depiction of Tatiana, the character based on Yermolyeva, popularized microbiology as a possible career among girls in the Soviet Union.^[9]

Awards and recognition

Memorial plaque to Yermolyeva in her birthplace of Frolovo, commemorating her as the recipient of the USSR State Prize

• Stalin Prize (1943)^[10]
• Two Orders of Lenin
• Order of the Red Banner of Labour

Scientific interests

• Antibiotics
• Bacterial polysaccharides
• Biologically active substances from animal tissues
• Interferon
• Chemotherapy of infection

Scientific writing

Ermolieva was the author of more than 500 papers, several books, such as "Penicillin", "Antibiotics, Bacterial Polysaccharides, Interferon" and others. She was the founder and chief editor of the Soviet journal "Antibiotiki" ("Antibiotics").

Tribute

On 24 October 2018, Yermolyeva was celebrated with a Google Doodle for her achievements.^[11]

References

1. "Obituary: Zinaida Vissarionova Ermolieva". Journal of Antibiotics. 28 (5): 399. 1968.
2. Кноповым, М.М.; Клясовым, А.В. "История РМАПО: Зинаида Виссарионовна Ермольева — создатель первого отечественного антибиотика" [History RMAPO: Zinaida Vissarionovna Yermolyeva - Creator of the first domestic antibiotic] (in Russian). Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
3. Ford, J.B. (2014). "Crisis Point: The Rise and Fall of Penicillin" (PDF). The Microscope. 62 (3): 123–135.
4. Conroy, Mary Schaeffer (2008). Medicines for the soviet masses during World War II. Internet Archive. Lanham, MD : University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-4009-1.
5. Arsen P. Fiks; Paul A. Buelow (2003). Self-experimenters: Sources for Study. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-313-32348-5.
6. Karpova, Lisa (1 February 2013). "Seventy years after the Battle of Stalingrad". Pravda.ru.
7. Commire, Anne; Klezmer, Deborah, eds. (2007). Dictionary of women worldwide : 25,000 women through the ages. Thomson Gale. p. 612. ISBN 978-0-7876-7585-1.
8. An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature, ed. Maxim D. Shrayer, Routledge: London & New York, 2015, p. 269 ("Veniamin Kaverin")
9. Anna Eremeeva, "The Woman-Scientist in Soviet Artistic Discourse", in: Edith Saurer et al., Women's Movements. Networks and Debates in post-communist Countries in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2006, p. 347
10. "Zinaida ErmolEva". Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Gale Group. 1979.
11. "Celebrating Zinaida Ermolyeva". 24 October 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2018.