IN MEMORIAM GEORGI D. EFREMOV December 8, 1932 – May 6, 2011
Dijana Plaseska-Karanfilska
*Corresponding Author:
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IN MEMORIAM GEORGI D. EFREMOV December 8, 1932 – May 6, 2011
It is with great sadness that I inform you that Professor
Georgi D. Efremov, the Co-Editor of the Balkan
Journal of Medical Genetics (BJMG), died on May 6,
2011 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
At 78, Professor Efremov had a full life as a scientist,
manager (director), journal editor, minister of science
in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia (R.
Macedonia), ambassador, President of the Macedonian
Academy of Science and Arts, president of different
professional societies. Yet, his restless energies never
slowed and he still had enough ideas, enthusiasm and
projects to fill many more fruitful years. We are greatly
diminished by his loss.
Professor Efremov was a world renowned expert
in the field of hemoglobin (Hb) research and a very
prominent scientist in the field of biomedicine and
biomolecular sciences in the R. Macedonia and in the
surrounding regions. He was instrumental in the characterization
of polymorphic protein variants in domestic
animals and had published hundreds of papers on
detection and characterization of different Hb variants
and thalassemia alleles. Professor Efremov was the
founder of molecular genetic research and diagnostics
in the R. Macedonia and made a major contribution in
the molecular detection and characterization of many
inherited monogenic diseases, malignancies and infectious
diseases.
Professor Georgi D. Efremov was born in Kratovo,
R. Macedonia on December 8, 1932. He graduated
from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of
Zagreb, Croatia in 1956 and in 1963 he defended his
Doctoral thesis at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.
The lifelong academic career of Professor Efremov at
the Faculty of Agriculture, University “St. Cyril and
Methodius,” Skopje, R. Macedonia started in 1959
when he was appointed as a junior assistant of the
physiology of domestic animals, rising to Assistant
Professor of Biochemistry in 1967, Associate Professor
in 1973 and Full Professor in 1980. He retired from the
Faculty of Agriculture in 2001 as a Professor of Biochemistry and Physiology. In the period 1978-1979 he
held the position of Full Professor of Biochemistry at
the Medical College of Georgia and Associate Director
of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Augusta,
GA, USA. In the period 1965-1980 he was a Scientific
Advisor at the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Skopje. He has been a visiting
professor at a number of universities in the USA,
Cuba, Libya and Kuwait. He has held lectures on postgraduate
studies in molecular biology and hematology
at the universities in Skopje, R. Macedonia, Belgrade
and Novi Sad, Serbia and Zagreb, Croatia. He was a
coordinator of the first interdisciplinary postgraduate
studies in molecular biology and genetic engineering
at the University of Skopje, Skopje, R. Macedonia.
He has been a mentor of more than 40 doctoral and
master students at universities in Havana, Cuba, Sofia,
Bulgaria, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Zagreb, Croatia,
Belgrade, Serbia and Skopje, R. Macedonia.
His rich scientific career included publication of
more than 500 peer-reviewed reports in international
and national journals and several chapters in books
and monographs. Professor Efremov’s greatest scientific
contribution was in the field of Hb research.
He started his scientific career with the investigation
of fetal and adult animal Hbs, which was part of his
Ph.D. thesis. In 1963 he received a fellowship from
the Royal Norwegian Council for Science and spent 2
years at the Department of Internal Medicine, Veterinary
College of Norway in Oslo headed by Professor
M. Braend. During this time he studied the Hb of sheep
heavily invaded by intestinal parasites. This work led
to the discovery of the first abnormal Hb in domestic
animals, that was published in Nature in 1964. Studies
of other anemic sheep showed that this Hb variant
(Hb N or Hb C) is a normal Hb that is expressed only
under conditions of hypoxic stress. Forty years later,
this Hb serves as a model for study of the expression
of globin genes.
When he returned to Macedonia in 1965, he initiated
systematic investigation of hemoglobinopathies
in the R. Macedonia, and later in all the Republics of
the Former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. In 1968, he was
invited by Professor Titus H.J. Huisman to join his
group at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA, USA;
they were studying the structure, function, synthesis
and expression of normal and abnormal human Hbs.
This was the start of a very productive relationship
that lasted for 30 years and resulted in numerous publications.
Hemoglobin was a primary research interest
of Professor Efremov until the end of his life. His work
conducted on the population of the republics of the
Former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria resulted in the characterization
of 12 new and 17 previously discovered
Hb variants and 23 new types of thalassemia. Professor
Efremov was the founder and head of the National
(since 1970) and International Reference Laboratory
for Hemoglobinopathies (since 1995). He also served
as a head of the International Informative Centre for
Abnormal Hemoglobins and Thalassemia.
In 1987, Professor Efremov established the Research
Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
(RCGEB) as a scientific unit of the the Macedonian
Academy of Sciences and Arts at Skopje, R.
Macedonia. Since then his research interest expanded
into the molecular basis of different human inherited,
malignant and infectious diseases. With his collaborators
from RCGEB he published numerous papers on
the molecular characterization of cystic fibrosis, muscular
dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy, hemophilia,
Fragile X syndrome and other monogenic diseases. He
studied the molecular bases of several malignancies,
such as colorectal, lung, breast and ovarian cancers.
He also studied the molecular epidemiology of some
infectious diseases, such as the hepatitis virus B and
C, the human papiloma virus and the Chlamydia trachomatis
infection. He was the first to introduce the
DNA markers in the human DNA identification, paternity
testing and criminal investigations in the R. Macedonia.
He was a principal investigator of more than
30 projects, funded mainly by foreign governmental
institutions.
Under his guidance, the RCGEB became a hub
for research in the field of biomolecular sciences in
the R. Macedonia, being one of the first institutions
in the region that applied these new technologies in
molecular diagnostics of human diseases and becoming
an international center for training in basic and advanced
methods in these sciences. Immediately after
his death, the Presidency of the Macedonian Academy
of Sciences and Arts renamed the center in his honor
as the Research Centre for Genetic Engineering and
Biotechnology “Georgi D. Efremov.”
His laboratories have been visited by more than
30 scientists from abroad and around 50 experts and
researchers from the R. Macedonia, to complete their
training in their specializations or for the purposes of preparing masters or doctoral theses. In the period
1991-1999, he organized five international advanced
courses on Nucleic Acid Methods (Recombinant DNA
technology) in Human and Veterinary Medicine, with
participation of more than 120 young scientists from
23 countries. He also organized several international
scientific meetings, including the Balkan Meeting of
Human Genetics in 2006.
Professor Efremov was the Co-Editor of the
BJMG (1997-2011), Associate Editor of Hemoglobin
(1998-2011) and Editor-in-Chief of Prilozi (1999-
2002), the scientific journal of the Macedonian Academy
of Sciences and Arts. He was also a member of
Editorial boards and referee of numerous international
and national scientific journals in the field of biomolecular
sciences.
Professor Efremov became a corresponding member
of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
in 1978, a full member in1983 and served as its President
from 2000-2001. He was Minister for Science in
the first Government of the independent R. Macedonia
(1991-1992) and the ambassador to the People’s
Republic of China (2002-2004). He was the president
of the Macedonian Society for Biochemistry and the
Macedonian Society for Human Genetics. He was a
member of numerous professional societies, such as
the New York Academy of Sciences, the Bulgarian
National Academy of Medicine, the Serbian National
Academy of Medicine, a Member of the European
Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Arts and
Sciences, the Mediterranean Academy, the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, the Federation
of European Biochemical Societies, the International
Society of Hematology, the American Society
of Hematology, the International Society of Forensic
Medicine, the American Association for Clinical
Chemistry and the Macedonian Medical Association.
His accomplishments were acknowledged with the
highest honors by the governments of the Former Yugoslavia
and the R. Macedonia.
I had the privilege of working with Professor
Efremov for almost 25 years from the very beginning
of my career. He was passionate about science and
new discoveries, extremely hard working, intuitive,
demanding, innovative in his research, devoted to his
work, and challenging to his students. It is said that a
great teacher never dies but lives on in his students.
The hundreds of students, and especially the hundreds
of researchers trained under Professor Efremov are
testimony to this truth. Many of his students have gone
on to train more students and scientists, generating a
living legacy of Professor Efremov’s very fruitful life.
All of us, as well as countless colleagues, friends and
others who have interacted with Professor Efremov are
grateful and recognize the continuing effect he exerts
on our lives. He leaves us his memory to cherish with
the implicit reminder that with integrity, passion, loyalty,
determination, and drive we can all accomplish
the impossible in life, and like him, pursue our dreams
of excellence.
Professor Efremov was an initiator and co-editor
of BJMG for almost 15 years, since the beginning of
BJMG in 1997. During these years, and especially since
2001 when the journal has been published in Skopje, R.
Macedonia, Professor Efremov raised the quality and
reputation of the journal, attracted renowned experts
for the Editorial board, introduced peer-review and
expert editorial assistance, and succeeded in including
the journal in many databases. Besides the print
version, he ensured that the journal is freely available
online for reading and submission.
As Professor Efremov’s successor in the role of
co-editor of the BJMG and together with Professor
Draga I. Toncheva (Sofia, Bulgaria), I will put all my
efforts to continue his successful work. Our responsibility
will be to ensure that we continue to attract good
quality papers across our broad and dynamic field, and
provide the very best service to our authors and readers
by communicating the most important scientific
advances quickly and accurately. Professor Efremov’s
goal and wish to make BJMG part of PubMed is also
our primary goal and we hope that very soon it will
become a reality.
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