Nagima Aitkhozhina

Nagima Abenovna Aitkhozhina (; 22 February 1946 – 10 November 2020) was a Kazakh biologist who specialised in the field of molecular biology. She was engaged in the study of the structural and functional organisation of the genome of higher organisms and the molecular mechanisms of regulation of its expression. Aitkhozhina served as general director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry named after M.A. Aitkhozhin of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 1990 to 2018, Kazakhstan's first genome laboratory. Between 1999 and 2002, she was president of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences. Aitkhozhina was an elected deputy of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union from the Committee of Soviet Women from 1989 to 1991. She was decorated with the Order of Parasat in December 2001 and the Order of the Leopard, Third Class ten years later.

Early life and education Aitkhozhina was born in the city of Petropavl on 22 February 1946. She was a 1969 graduate of the biological faculty of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Following her graduation, Aitkhozhina enrolled full-time at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union to do her post-graduate studies in 1970. She graduated in 1973. Aitkhozhina defended her Doctor of Philosophy thesis Structural and functional organisation of nuclear RNP particles containing pro-mRNA at the university in 1974 and her Doctorate of Biological Sciences thesis called Alkaloids – inhibitors of the biosynthesis of macromolecules in 1990.

She founded and served as general director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry named after M.A. Aitkhozhin of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Alma-Ata from 1990 to 2018, Kazakhstan's first genome laboratory.

Under her leadership, the mummified materials of horses and people's remains from 2,500 years ago that were preserved in artificial frozen conditions were discovered in an archaeological dig in Berel, East Kazakhstan Region. DNA molecular genetic analysis was carried out and a comparative analysis of the DNA of different Kazakh populations was conducted, enabling further research into paleogenomics and ethnogenomics, ethnic history and ethnogenesis of people in Kazakhstan. and received the Order of the Leopard, Third Class from the President in December 2011. Aitkhozhina was decorated with the Diploma of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR,