Microbiologist Z.V. Ermolyeva - a pioneer in the study of the antibacterial agent lysozyme in the USSR in the 1930s

The paper considers a contribution of the Russian microbiologist Zinaida Vissarionovna Ermolyeva to the study of the antibacterial agent lysozyme in the 1930s. The author uses unpublished documents of the Russian State Archive of Economics, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as specialized scientific publications. The scientist and the employees of Microbes Biochemistry Department of the Biochemical Institute named after A.N. Bach, which she headed, managed to study the properties of lysozyme, the peculiarities of its effect on various microorganisms under the influence of various factors, to discover new sources of it, as well as to conduct experiments on animals to determine the therapeutic effect. Zinaida Vissarionovna and her colleagues modified the method of obtaining pure lysozyme. The discoveries of Z.V. Ermolyeva are important due to the fact that after receiving positive results of the action of the studied drug, she immediately tried to introduce it into medical practice. The paper highlights the participation of the scientist in the All-Union Mendeleev Congress, as well as in the meetings of the specialized commission of the Scientific Medical Council of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR, which examined the successes of her department in the study of lysozyme. The scientific activity of Z.V. Ermolyeva in the 1930s was a powerful foundation on which, during the war, she worked to obtain a domestic antibiotic – penicillin