Scientific school of N.V.Zaitseva

The Perm krai as many other industrially developed regions has a number of complex health problems. The population of industrial centers of Prikamye is extensively exposed to adverse environmental factors. The needs to solve the tasks of the population health preserve in adverse condition enabled the development of scientific research areas targeted on evaluation, analysis, optimization of management methods, prevention and treatment of diseases associated with the contamination of ambient air, nature and drinking water, soils and etc. This became a background for the foundation and evolvement of the hygienic scientific school, which was created and cherished within many years by the fellow of Russian academy of science, Doctor of Medical Science, Professor Nina Vladimirovna Zaitseva.

Nina V. Zaitseva – graduated from the sanitary-and-hygienic faculty of Perm State Medical Academy in 1971, after passing the residency training at the Department of communal hygiene.

She made her first steps in science under the supervision of the honored worker of science of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Vaysman Yakov Iosifovich, Head of the Department of Environmental protection, Perm National Research Polytechnic University. A great influence on the formation of the scientific worldview was shaped by the Moscow specialists: Professor Gury Nikolaevich Krasovsky; academician of RAMS, Gennady Ivanovich Sidorenko; academician of RAMS, Yuriy Anatolyevich Rakhmanin; academician of RAMS Nikolay Fedotovich Izmerov. All of them are the scientists of international renown, who conducted pioneer researches in preventive medicine in our country. After defending Ph.D. thesis in 1978, she worked in Perm Polytechnic Institute, where she passed the way from a researcher to associate professor, and in 1983 after defending her doctoral dissertation became a Professor of the Department of Environmental protection.

The main scientific idea has gradually become a major one, and which for many years has identified the interests of the academic, namely, the identification of possible health problems caused by various environmental factors. Under the leadership of Nina Vladimirovna the most of relevant and innovative research areas are shaped: methodical guidelines for identification and quantitation of man-made pollutants in biological human media; mathematical modeling of health disorders’ evolution under the impact of risk factors; diagnosis of health disorders at the cellular and sub-cellular levels; geographical-informational support in hygienic researches and sanitary inspections, etc.

In 1996, on the initiative of N.V.Zaitseva, the Perm Krai Research Institute for Child Ecopathology was established. The Institute became a unique clinical scientific and research center for our country, that facilitated the integration of the scientific and applied aspects of preventive medicine

In 2009, the activity of the Institute’s team was highly appreciated and recognized as highly effective, what subsequently made it possible to reorganize the Institute into the Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies, which was included in the system of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being or Rospotrebnadzor. The range of the tasks solved by the Center was expanded, the material and technical base was totally changed and modernized, new employees were enrolled and the interest of foreign partners significantly increased.

The Center became a platform for the most advanced and relevant scientific researches focused on perspective: the development of the theory of the risk assessment analysis at evaluation of public health exposed to environmental factors, occupational factors, lifestyle and etc.; the study of pathogenic mechanisms of impact on human health induced by separate factors; the dimensional analysis of exposure and effects that are manifested in health violations using a base of geo-informational system and etc.

Applicative significant results are gained by the scientific studies at the intersection of hygiene, biology and mathematics. On the base of proposed evolutionary models of health risk associated with the factors of diverse origin the Center developed a number of methodical recommendations that are expected to be introduced and applied on the level of the Russian Federation. These recommendations have been successfully approved and appreciated by the Directorates of Rospotrebnadzor on Permskiy krai, Saint-Petersburg, Sverdlovsk region.

The developments in the field of up-to-date biochemical, cytogenetic and immune-biological methods of diagnostics are conducted on the level that meets the best world requirements.

The Center provides studies using innovative biotechnologies on the following levels: molecular cytogenetic; immunogenetic; biochemical. The methods comprised the nano-sensor diagnosis of diseases that are modified by risk factors; safety assessment of nano-materials in respect of human health and the development and implementation of highly sensitive and highly selective biomolecular diagnostic techniques based on hybridoma technology studies of proteome and metabolome of a person that allow to identify conceptually new biomarkers, which serve as indicators of early stages of health disorders associated with risk factors impact.

The feature of the Centre is an active development and implementation of modern physical and chemical high sensitive and selective methods of determination of the chemical compounds and elements in the biological media of the population (blood, urine, bile, gastric juice, etc.). The medical and biological researches, targeted on the study of effect of chemical compounds on health state of the population (children and adults), with application of developed modern physical and chemical methods and regional backgrounds levels have been co-opted by the Sverdlovsk and Orenburg regions, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Udmurtia. At the present time about 30 methods of determination of pollutants in biological media have been approved at the level of the Russian Federation as the state control methods and recommended to implementation. Beside this the methods oriented towards gas and high effective liquid chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometry and etc., allow to identify the compounds in micro-quantities, what facilitates the forming a safety evidential base of harmful effect of chemical risk factors on human health.

The Clinic with the Pediatry and Therapy services works successfully as a part of the Centre. The patients are rendered the specialized high-technology consultant-diagnostic assistance in such areas as pediatry, therapy, occupational pathology, allergology, immunology, cardiology, otolaryngology, neurology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, genetics, gynecology, urology, chirurgery, radiology, physical therapy, physiotherapy, acupuncture. The physicians annually accept about 43 thousand people. Each year 1400 little patients receive treatment in Department of Pediatry. There is the same quantity of patients in the Department of Therapy for adults on the profile «occupational health», which was established 2 years ago. In this department the people, whose diseases are caused by effects of harmful conditions of production, are observed and given proper treatment. The experience of the Clinic is combined and formed in the standards of treatment and preventive technologies.

Successful and steady operation of such a complicated institution is possible thanks to the major achievement - the formation of strong team of highly qualified specialists in various fields of natural-scientific knowledge such as chemistry, biology, medicine, mathematics. There are 20 Doctors and 26 Candidates of Science who are working in the Center. All of them are the apprentices and colleagues of Nina Vladimirovna. Under her scientific supervision 62 thesis, including 20 doctoral dissertations have been prepared and successfully defended. Over the period since 1973 more than 600 articles have been published in the leading Russian and international scientific journals, including such as «Hygiene and Sanitary», «Epidemiology», «In Vivo», etc. Under the leadership and the participation of N.V. Zaitseva 20 monographs and scientific books have been prepared, among them are “Scientific and Methodological and Applied Aspects of Human Ecology”, “Hygienic indication of consequences for health in external exposition of chemical factors”, “Control of Chemical Compounds and Elements in Biological Media”.

N.V. Zaitseva is a member of authors’ teams developing scientific-methodical guidelines and instructions of the Federal level intended for practical physicians, students, health service organizers, specialists in human ecology, preventive medicine and environment medicine (1990-2011). The team of scientists took part in plenty of international projects, including the projects within the collaboration between the Perm region and the Land of Lower Saxony, and also the Perm krai and Oxfordshir County. The international projects were realized under Roll and Tasis programs. Now the International Research Project is being realized in the field of biotechnology together with University of Georgia (Georgia Tech), USA. In 2011 the project devoted to occupational safety was implemented jointly with the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA.

Nina Vladimirovna successfully combines her scientific and teaching activities and in addition she has a part-time job on position of the Head of Department of public health and healthcare of Perm State Medical Academy.