The scientific community of Society for Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease (SOMED) suffers a big and important loss. Professor Boris Arkadjevich SHENDEROF has passed away only 5 days before his jubilee – the 80th birthday. We remember him as a true scientist with wide interests, encyclopedic knowledge in microbiology, immunology and biochemistry who also possessed experimental and clinical skills. At our future conferences we will miss the loud voice of a brave man always starting exciting discussions either on some regrettably forgotten or novel scientific trends. He never failed to appreciate original ideas or incite people to give talks on conferences organized by him in Russia. We all have vivid memories of his kind and magnanimous nature.

B.A. SHENDEROV graduated from the Medical Institute of Saratov in 1964. He defended the degree of doctor of medical sciences ten years later. In the USSR it usually took some 25 years of research to reach this landmark. In 1979 he started as professor of microbiology, inspiring numerous students and showing remarkable talent as a chairman of many organizations and institutions both in the USSR and later in Russia. In 1989-1994 Boris Shenderov served as director of Scientific Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology on the control of the safety of products in Russia. The institute was blossoming despite the difficult economic conditions in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As he once put it himself, “I feel in a right place, it has given us the wings to fly.” Boris A. Shenderov introduced and explored several possibilities of free innovative research and production of healthy food. His wide knowledge of different medical subjects determined his success. In 2000 he gained the professorship of the technology of food production at the M. Lomonossov National University of Moscow. This is the leading scientific and educational institution in Russia until this day. He worked there till his death in December 2020.

Professor Shenderov pursued various kinds of scientific interests and published research in hundreds of research papers and books. His publications were often quite similar to the style of theoretical physics if such a branch could be accepted in biomedicine and medicine. He was the unifier of molecular and clinical microbial ecology, with interests in the genetics and epigenetics of bacteria. He organized the first possibilities for auto transplantation of the persons’ own extracted and frozen fecal enema, elaboration of probiotics and metabiotics, functional nutrition.
In the last years he coauthored several publications on the gut-brain axis and the role of metabolites of microorganisms as neuro mediators in psychiatric pathologies and during one’s life arc.

Professor SHENDEROV was a fine human being who was greatly devoted to his colleagues, friends, lovely wife, daughter Julia and grandson Dmitry. The memory of BORIS ARKAGIJEVITCH is very dear to us.

On behalf of the SOMED Society,

TORE MIDTVEDT Professor Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
tore.midtvedt@ki.se

MARIKA MIKELSAAR Professor emeritus University of TARTU, ESTONIA, marika.mikelsaar@ut.ee

ELISABETH NORIN Professor Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
elisabeth.norin@ki.se

EUGENIA BEZIRTZOGLOU Professor Democritus University of Thrace, Medical School, Alexandroupolis, Greece, President SOMED
empezirt@med.duth.gr

A human being consists of a mammalian component and a multiplicity of microbes, collectively referred to as the “microbiota” or “microbiome,” with which it has a symbiotic relationship. The microbiota is comprised of a variety of communities, the composition of each being dependent on the body site it inhabits. This community variation arises because the numerous locations on a human being provide very different environments, each of which favors the establishment of a distinct microbial community. Each community consists of bacteria, fungi and viruses with, in some cases, archaea and/or protozoa.