Kukayn, Rita Alexandrovna

She was born in Petrograd in a Latvian family, which after the World War II moved to Latvia.

She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Latvia (1946) with honors and received a medical specialty. From 1947 to 1950 she studied at the graduate school of the Faculty of Medicine.

In 1948 she joined the Communist Party.

In 1950-1952 - head. Laboratory of the Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics of the Ministry of Health of the Latvian SSR.

She worked at the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR (from 1952 - deputy director, from 1962 - director), in 1955 organized and headed the laboratory of integration virology at this institute (since 1968 - professor).

In 1961 she defended her doctoral dissertation at the Riga Medical Institute on the prevention and treatment of poliomyelitis.

Microbiological synthesis is the most promising and cheapest way to obtain such valuable nutrients as amino acids and vitamins. Many microorganisms are capable of so-called super-synthesis - they form such a quantity of metabolic products that exceeds their own need. It was this property that laid the foundation for technical microbiology. Among the essential amino acids that a living organism does not produce, but receives with food, is lysine . In the laboratory of R. Kukayn, a technology for industrial synthesis of lysine for livestock was developed, which was introduced at the Lebanese experimental biochemical plant , the construction of which began in 1965 ^[2] .

In 1968, Latvian virologists, led by academician Kukain, identified the causative agent of leukemia , which is widespread in the republic among brown Latvian cows, and called it BLV (bovine leukemia virus). At the molecular level, the process of introducing BLV into the cell was studied, which, using the enzyme reverse transcriptase, synthesizes the infectious form of the cell’s DNA.

Thus, under the leadership of Rita Kukayn, an anti-leukemia vaccine was created.

In 1973, Rita Alexandrovna received the A. Kirchenstein Prize .

For a series of works in the program “Reverse transcriptase (revertase)”, a group of scientists from the USSR, as well as scientists from Czechoslovakia and the GDR, were awarded the USSR State Prize in 1979 ^[3] .

In the mid-1980s, she was elected deputy of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR . Supported the movement for the national revival of Latvia - Atmoda , from 1989 to 1991 represented the Popular Front of Latvia in the Supreme Council . For this she was awarded the Order of Three Stars on May 4, 2010.

The main scientific studies are devoted to the etiology , immunology , epidemiology of poliomyelitis and viral diseases . Worked on a live polio vaccine. She studied the viral etiology of malignant neoplasms , the body's natural defense mechanisms against viral infection, and the possibility of inducing interferon . She studied the problem of the relationship between the virus and the cell. Developed methods of virotherapy of tumors, chemotherapy of viral infections. She studied the etiology of leukemia in humans and animals. Editor-in-chief of annual releases, “Virus-Cell Relationships."

Her husband is academician Viktor Konstantinovich Kalnberz .

Son - Konstantin Viktorovich Kalnberz, orthopedic surgeon.

• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1976)
• USSR State Prize (1979) ^[3]
• Order of the Three Stars (2010)

• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / ch. ed. P.P. Eran. - Riga: Main Edition of Encyclopedias , 1989. - S. 395-396. - 880 s. - 60,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .

• Biography until 1979
• Biography Academy of Sciences of Latvia (Latvian)