Timofeevskii, Aleksandr Dmitrievich

Born Feb. 8 (20), 1887, in Moscow. Soviet pathophysiologist and oncologist. Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1945). Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1939).

Timofeevskii graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Tomsk in 1912 and became a professor in 1922. He worked in Tomsk, Kharkov, and Kiev. From 1956 to 1962, he headed the department of tumor etiology and pathogenesis of the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Oncology in Moscow.

Timofeevskii’s principal works are on the histogenesis of the cells of connective tissues, hematopoiesis, and the development of sarcomas, carcinomas, and leukemias. In 1912, working jointly with his teacher, P. P. Avrorov, he became the first scientist in Russia to use the method of cell and tissue culture. He described the malignant effect on tissues of carcinogens and oncogenic viruses. Timofeevskii was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1948 for his monograph Tissue Culture of Human Tumors. He has also been awarded the Order of Lenin and a medal.