Garry Abelev

Garry Izrailevich Abelev (; 10 January 1928 23 December 2013) was a Russian scientist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2000), Doctor of Biological Sciences,

In 1955 he defended his candidate's dissertation. In 1963 he defended his doctoral dissertation.

He worked at the N.F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology & Microbiology from 1950 to 1977.

From 1964 to 2006 he worked as a lecturer at the Department of Virology at Faculty of Biology at the Moscow State University.

In 1967 he received the title of Professor. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (since 1990) and the New York Academy of Sciences. He also was an honorary member of the European Association of Cancer Research and a member of the Russian Supervisory Board of the International Science Counsil.

In 1977, after a conflict with the directorate of the N.F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology & Microbiology, his department was transferred to the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center.

Died in 2013 in Moscow.

Research In 1963, in an attempt to find specific tumour antigens, Abelev's department discovered an embryonic protein synthesised by liver cancer cells, α-fetoprotein. On this basis, the Abelev-Tatarinov reaction was developed for immunodiagnosis of liver cancer and teratoblastoma of the ovary. In addition, the detection of α-fetoprotein in hepatoma opened a new perspective on cancer as a reverse reprogramming of an adult cell into an embryonic cell.