Lina Solomonovna Shtern

(also Lina Šterna). Born Aug. 14 (26), 1878, in Liepāja, in what is now the Latvian SSR; died Mar. 7,1968, in Moscow. Soviet physiologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939) and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1944). Member of the CPSU from 1938.

After graduating from the University of Geneva in 1903, Shtern taught there, becoming a professor in 1917. In 1925 she moved to the USSR. From 1925 to 1948 she was head of the sub-department of physiology of the Second Moscow Medical Institute, and from 1929 to 1948 she was also director of the Institute of Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From 1954 to 1968 she was head of the physiology section of the Institute of Biophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Shtern’s main works dealt with the chemical and physicochemical bases of the vital functions of humans and animals. Shtern developed the concept of barrier functions and demonstrated the importance of such functions in maintaining the stability of the internal environment (homeostasis). She thoroughly investigated the blood-brain barrier. Her studies on the significance of nonspecific metabolic products (metabolites) in the functioning of the organism played a major role in elucidating the humoral regulation of functions.

Shtern received the State Prize of the USSR in 1943. She was awarded two orders.