Established in 1946 and re-established in 1995; scholars of the Department of Biochemistry, Physiology, and Molecular Biology of the NAS of Ukraine are awarded the Prize for outstanding academic papers in the field of microbiology, immunology and gerontology
Mechnikov Illiya Illich Prize
Illiya Illich Mechnikov – world-renowned biologist, microbiologist, embryologist, bacteriologist, immunologist, naturalist, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1902), Nobel Prize winner (1908), one of the founders of evolutionary embryology, immunology and microbiology, was born on May 15, 1845. in the village of Ivanivka, Kupyansky district, Kharkiv region (now Panasivka, Dvorichna district, Kharkiv region) in a noble family.
After finishing the IInd Kharkiv Gymnasium with a gold medal, Illiya Mechnikov entered the the Faculty Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University in 1862 and successfully graduated (in two years) from it.
I.I. Mechnikov began his scientific activity with research in the field of zoology and comparative embryology of invertebrates and in 1867 defended the PhD thesis on the embryonic development of fish and crustaceans; then he was elected an associate professor at Novorossiysk University (Odesa).
In 1868, he was appointed a private-docent at St. Petersburg University and defended his doctoral thesis.
In 1868–1870, I.I. Mechnikov, being mostly abroad, continued research on the embryology of various groups of invertebrates.
For a long time (1870–1882) I.I. Mechnikov was engaged in research and teaching work, heading the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Novorossiysk University.
In 1886, together with M.F. Gamaliya, he founded and headed the first bacteriological station in Russia and the second in the world (after the Pasteur Institute in Paris) in Odesa (now it is Odesa Research Institute of Virology and Epidemiology).
I.I. Mechnikov conducted active research work aimed at developing methods of combating rabies, plague and other infectious diseases, developed methods of combating pests of agricultural crops.
In the same period, he developed the theory of germ layers, the origin of multicellular organisms.
He discovered the phenomenon of phagocytosis (1882) and developed the phagocytic theory of immunity on its basis (1883).
The essence of this theory is the ability of white blood cells – phagocytes to absorb and digest particles penetrating into the body from outside.
I.I. Mechnikov together with P. Ehrlich was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the phagocytic theory of immunity.
In 1888, I.I. Mechnikov was invited to the Pasteur Institute, where he organized his own laboratory and headed it until the end of his life (1916).
During this period, he actively studied the causative agents of cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis, and together with the French scientist Emile Roux, he researched syphilis (they discovered the causative agent of the disease – the pale spirochete).
I.I. Mechnikov paid special attention to the longevity problems. He believed that premature old age is the result of gradual poisoning of the body with cytotoxins.
I.I. Mechnikov developed his own approach to the problem, “orthobiosis”, whose essence was to remove “harmful” bacteria from the human body and saturate it with “useful” bacteria, in particular milk bacillus. He approached this problem not only as a biologist, but also as a humanist.
Scientific developments of I.I. Mechnikov are recognized all over the world, he is an honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the French Academy of Medicine, the Paris, Vienna, New York, Belgian, and Romanian Academies of Sciences. Many research and medical institutions, streets, etc. are named after him.