The heads of department
The Department of Histology of the Medical Faculty of the Belarusian State University was established in 1923. The first head of the department was Professor Mavrodiadi Petr Aristarkhovich. A large organizational work was carried out to create a histological laboratory, illustrative tools and the first program in general and special histology with embryology for 1st and 2nd course. A student scientific circle began to work, two textbooks “Brief summary of histology and cytology” were published. Scientific research in the field of histology and cytology started.
Since 1935, the head of the department of Histology was Petr Yakovlevich Gerkе. In 1936 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences, and in 1937 he was given the title of professor. Under his leadership, scientific studies of human and mammalian embryogenesis, of the microscopic structure of neural and lymphoepithelial systems were carried out.
The intense creative work of the department staff was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. The histology department continued its work in Yaroslavl. After the Great Patriotic War in 1944, under the leadership of Professor Gerke P.Ya. the restoration of the completely destroyed histology department began, and by the spring of 1945 the first post-war academic year was successfully completed.
Since 1952, under the leadership of Professor Stancho Milenkovich Milenkov, the histology department carried out studies of changes in the nervous apparatus of a number of organs during experimental and pathological processes, studying the problems of the relationship between the hypothalamus and the endocrine glands.
From 1971 to 1997, the histology department was headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences. Professor Anatoly Sergeevich Leontyuk. At this time, the department expanded comprehensive studies of the patterns of ontogenetic development based on the widespread use of a systematic approach. The histology department innovated mathematical methods of scientific research in morphology.
The department was actively engaged in educational and methodological work. Thus, since 1995, a new 3-semester curriculum has been introduced for students of the Faculty of Dentistry. From that time until the creation of the specialized department of human morphology for the dental faculty, the staff of the department of histology carried out a lot of work on methodological support. So, the “Supplement to the album of histology tasks” was published, as well as textbooks: “The aging histology of the organs of the dental system” 1995, “Histology of the organs of the human dental system” 1996, “Histophysiology of the human dental system”1998
Much attention is paid by the lecturers to teaching foreign students. In 1994, the histology department introduced a three-semester system of teaching foreign students. Special practicums: “Cytology” 1994, “Embryology” 1994. and General histology“ 1995 were prepared, a terminological Russian-Belarusian-Latin-English dictionary of cytology was published. Currently, foreign students are taught according to a common program with Belarusian students.
From 1997 to 2009, the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology was headed by Professor Boris Aleksandrovich Sluka. Under his leadership, scientific research continued with the widespread use of quantitative analysis methods to establish the transformations of the heterogeneity of cell populations of various tissues and organs. During this period in 2005 prof. A.S. Leontyuk was awarded the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus in Science and Technology for participation in the work “A new method of surgical treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes by xenotransplantation of islet cells into the recipient's vascular bed (experimental clinical study)” (Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No. 255 dated July 7, 2005).
During this period, the Department of Histology, Cytology and Embryology of the Belarusian State Medical University with the departments of histology of the Vitebsk and Grodno medical universities, concentrated on the profiling of the teaching at different faculties. The histology, cytology, embryology Programs were approved for General medicine, Pediatrics and Preventive medicine faculties separately. Textbooks having no analogues in the Republic of Belarus were prepared and published: “Aging histology” 1996, 2000, “General embryology” 1999, “Embryology” 2009, “Histology in questions and answers” 2000, “Situational tasks in histology” 2000, as well as “Histology with microscopic technique” for medical schools.
Since 2009, the department is headed by Associate Professor Tatyana Mikhailovna Studenikina. Under her leadership, research on developing structures with extensive use of quantitative analysis methods continues. By means such modern morphological research methods as immunohistochemical analysis, it has become possible to study the morphology of various structures at a new level: for example, the cellular composition of the human thymus Hassal bodies were studied, the stages of their development and death were detailed, as well as morphological changes in the aortic wall during human ontogenesis.
The department is actively engaged in educational and methodological work. So, since 2008, the university has organized training for foreign students in English. Associate professors of the department Vylegzhanina T.A. and Ostrovskaya T.I. have carried out a huge methodical work such as English lectures, English test tasks for current and final control, an “Histology, cytology, embryology: practical manual for medical faculty of foreign students (course of studies en English) ”and the teaching aid “ Nervous tissue and nervous system ”(2014). In 2012, the department created and posted on the University's Intranet site an electronic educational and methodological complex, which is updated annually. At present, work on the textbook “Histology, cytology, embryology” is being completed. For foreign students studying the discipline of histology, cytology and embryology in Russian adapted textbooks “Basics of Histology” (2011) and “Basics of Histology, Cytology, Embryology” (2014, 2020) were published.