 To the memory of Valery Vasilyevich Lednev
Valery Vasilyevich Lednev, outstanding scientist–biophysicist, professor, Dr. Sc. Biol. passed away February 27, 2009.
V.V. Lednev was born on December 30, 1939 in Bakharden, Turkmen Republic of the former USSR, in the family of a military man. Having graduated from secondary school in 1957 in Moscow, V.V. Lednev entered the physical faculty of Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1963 at the Department of Biophysics with the specialty of "physicist-experimentalist". The field of his scientific interests developed during his study at the Moscow State University and biophysics became a dominant direction. Since 1968 V.V. Lednev was an employee of the Institute of Biological Physics, Academy of Science of USSR. His previous research was at the Institute of Crystallography, coupled with three years of training in the Royal College of the London University in the laboratory of professor J. Hanson where he learned X-ray scattering techniques, defined a direction of scientific activity for V.V. Lednev that led to studies on the contraction of muscles. His studies on actin chains performed in England provided a basis for him to develop a mechanism for muscle contraction. V.V. Lednev defended this mechanism in his PhD thesis. The following studies of Dr. Lednev on myosin chains are known worldwide. As the head of the laboratory of Biophysics of Muscular Contraction, Dr. Lednev has involved in his study a galaxy of young employees owning various modern biophysical, biochemical, and physiological methods. The most significant result of his studies was finding of two structural states of the actomyosin complexes and of the existence of myosin head conformers. These studies have received wide international response and became a subject of a series of the PhD theses supervised by V.V. Lednev.
Since 1988, a new subject of scientific interest of V.V. Lednev was the biological effects of weak magnetic fields. This problem is especially important in connection with technological progress and possible health risks imposed by anthropogenic electromagnetic fields. Effects of magnetic fields with different physical characteristics on biosystems have been studied in many laboratories over the world. However, exact mechanisms of these effects are unknown. V.V. Lednev formulated an original theory of parametric magnetic resonance in biological systems. This theory describes effects of the combined magnetic fields on the velocity of some calcium-dependent biochemical reactions. The theory of magnetic parametric resonance developed by V.V. Lednev is of great theoretical and practical significance. This theory has been proved during subsequent experimental studies with the test-systems of various levels of biological organization, from a molecular one to the level of whole organisms. Among them are the rates of ferment reactions in solutions, the rate of regeneration of planaria, development of the gravitropic reactions in stalks of plants, the rate of generation of active oxygen species in neutrophils.
For the latest several years, the scientific interests of V.V. Lednev focused on the solution of the problem of the effects of extremely-weak magnetic fields on biosystems. He proposed a model for such effects that has allowed the identification of primary targets: magnetic moments of hydrogen nuclear spins and diamagnetic electron currents in molecules. The predicted responses were then proven experimentally with various test-systems.
One of the brightest examples of the embodiment of V.V. Lednev ideas has become a study of extremely-weak magnetic field effects on physiological functions of the human organism. The study performed in collaboration with the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Physical Training in the chamber specially designed by V.V. Lednev revealed effects of extremely-weak magnetic fields on variability of the heart rhythm. The interest of the medical biophysics community in his findings is exemplified by his cooperative works with the Regenerative Center of Childhood Orthopedics and Traumatology, St.-Petersburg, Russia, and the Scientific Research Institute of Pediatrics. In these studies V.V. Lednev developed new methods for medical treatment by means of weak magnetic fields.
V.V. Lednev participated actively in a pedagogical, scientific, and public life. He was a member of Academic Councils of the several scientific organizations. He took part in numerous scientific congresses and conferences of different levels. He is an author of more than 100 publications and has supervised more than 10 dissertations.
Valery Vasilyevich Lednev belonged to that galaxy of scientists whose bright talent and selfless passion for the science attracted to him many colleagues and pupils. He possessed enormous inquisitiveness, improbable persistence on searches of necessary materials, methods and solutions for experimental problems. The surprising skills to communicate allowed him to find collaborators and colleagues in the various interdisciplinary fields of research. V.V. Lednev was able to resolve the complicated issues in the simplest way and to extract everything new, most important and interesting from seminars and conferences. Enormous working capacity and surprisingly bright imagination supported by his significant scientific knowledge in the area of fundamental and applied biophysics allowed him to find precisely and easily the most interesting problems, to evaluate them and to suggest uncommon solutions during creative discussions with colleagues.
He was a passionate person and all of us who got a chance to communicate with him and enjoined his friendship, will miss him. The bright memory of him will be always with us. We believe that the scientific world will for long time turn to his scientific heritage, develop creative ideas of V.V. Lednev, analyze results of his studies and think about his theoretical hypotheses.
Prof. Ivanitsky G.R., Prof. Maevsky E.I., Dr. Belova N.A., Dr. Srebnitskaya L.K., Dr. Rojdestvenskaya Z.Ye., Prof. Chemeris N.K., Prof. Gapeyev A.B., Prof. Breus T.K., Prof. Gurfinkel Yu.I., Prof. Binhi V.N., Prof. Belyaev I.Ya., Beylina S.I., Teplov V.A., Ermakov A.M., Dr. Matveeva N.B., Znobishcheba A.V., Dr. Karnauhov V.N., Dr. Karnauhov A.V., Karnauhova N.A., Prof. Dudin M.G., Dr. Arsen’ev A.V., Dr. Ivanov A.V., Dr. Drozdov A.V.
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