Afrikyan, Evrik Gegamovich

In 1947, he graduated from the Yerevan Medical Institute and the graduate school of the Institute of Microbiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow). Pupil N. A. Krasilnikova . He began his scientific career as a student, working in the clinic of general surgery, publishing a series of works and a monograph Penicillin and its importance in medicine (1947).

In 1963–2000 - Director of the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR / Armenia. Since 2000 - honorary director. Since 2006, he has been a scientific consultant at the joint Center for Microbiology and Deposit of Microbes of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia and the head of the unit - the Center for Deposit of Microbes. For a long time he worked at leading foreign centers: more than a year at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, in the laboratories of the USA and Canada, and for about 3 years in Japan.

Under his leadership, the institute played a significant role in the development of industrial production in the USSR of bacterial insecticides, amino acids, and other valuable products. In 1993, E. founded the Center for the Deposit of Microbes, representing the failure of an extensive base of cultures of non-pathogenic microorganisms of scientific and industrial importance.

Since 1993 - Director of the Republican Center for the Deposit of Microbes of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Since 2006 - Scientific Advisor, Advisor at the Center for Microbiology and Microbial Deposit of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Research interests: General and applied microbiology, biotechnology, aerobic spore-forming bacteria, features of their entomopathogenic and extremophilic forms, cosmic microbiology.

Doctor of Biological Sciences (1970). Professor (1972). Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR (1982, corresponding member since 1974).

He was elected vice-president of the All-Union Microbiological Society, USSR. Member of scientific councils and committees of general and applied microbiology of the USSR, Moscow. Member of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Microorganism Cultures Collections (WFCC) and the International Society for Systematic Bacteriology.

Specialist in the field of general and applied microbiology, biotechnology. Author of 4 monographs and more than 300 scientific papers.

Particular attention was paid to the study of aerobic spore-forming bacteria. They established the specifics of antagonistic properties, confirming the position on the species specificity of the formation of antibiotics. The research results were systematized in the monograph Antagonist Bacteria and Their Applications (1959).

In the framework of the method of electron scanning microscopy proposed by the scientist, the nature of the inverse forms of Bacillus mycoides was revealed, caused by the different intensity of cell division within the bacterial strands formed on the surface of the agar media. As a coordinator of the study and application of entomopathogenic bacteria, he studied the ecology, systematics, metabolism, the characteristics of their insecticidal action, the study of entomocidal toxins, as well as the organization of the production and use of new insecticidal drugs. Scientific generalizations in this direction are reflected in the monograph "Entomopathogenic bacteria and their significance" (1973).

In the study of Bacillus thuringiensis, used in large-scale production of bioinsecticidal preparations, a fundamentally new fact was revealed about the cross-sero-agglutination of Bacillus cereus cultures that do not produce crystal toxins with the H-antigens of antisera of typical B.thuringiensis crystal-forming strains. This phenomenon reveals the phylogenetic affinity of these species and opens up opportunities for genetic engineering of entomopathogenic and other types of bacilli. Based on a detailed study of other entomopathogens, their phylogeny with related species was proposed. As a result, large-tonnage production of 2 bacterial insecticidal preparations was organized: a BIP (bacterial insecticidal preparation) based on a new species of B.thuringiensis ssp.caucasicus to combat harmful lepidopterans, and using the original B.thuringiensis strain - a BLP preparation (bacterial larvicidal preparation) ) to fight mosquitoes.

For the first time, the specialists of the institute under his leadership have determined that genetic determinants for biosynthesis of entomocidal toxins have a plasmid nature (1976).

From 1976 he led a wide range of microbiological, biochemical, physico-chemical, and informational studies on the microbial damage of synthetic polymeric materials used in space technology. The results of these studies are summarized in the book Fungal Degradants of Polymeric Materials: Databases and the Collection of Cultures with Atlas (2005).

Awarded the Order "Badge of Honor" , ananania shirakatsi medal.

Honored Scientist of the Republic of Armenia (2003).

• Fungal degradants of polymeric materials: Databases and Culture Collection with Atlas (2005).
• Penicillin and its use in medicine. Yerevan: Publishing House of the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences. - 1948. - 368 s.
• Antagonistic bacteria and their use. Yerevan: Publishing House of the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences. - 1960. - 120 p.
• Entomopathogenic bacteria and their significance. Yerevan: Publishing House of the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences. - 1973. - 420 p.
• Khachaturian, A.A., Kotov, V.K., Afrikyan, E.G. Descriptors for creating an automated database of cultures of microorganisms. Yerevan: Publishing House of the Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences. - 1987. - 331 p.
• Afrikyan E.G. (Ch. Ed.), Chil-Akopyan L.A., Pivazyan L.A., Kinosyan M.A., Chitchyan K.V., Chilingaryan K.O., Kazantyan N.L. Catalog of cultures of microorganisms. Yerevan: Publishing house "Gitutiun". - 1996. - 263 p.
• Afrikian E. (ed.), Kurakov A., Ghazanchyan N., Goginyan V., Gevorgyan S., Harutyunyan A. Fungal de polyants of polymeric materials: Editing, Yerevan, 2005, 250 pp .

• Evrik Gegamovich Afrikyan's profile on the official site of the NAS RA
• Encyclopedia Foundation "Hiazg"
• armenpress.am
• greenstone.flib.sci.am