The dynasty made discoveries worth billions! How did Sheiko's geneticists manage to achieve this?

The Sheiko dynasty of scientists has achieved impressive results in the field of breeding, selection, genetics and reproduction of farm animals. There are two doctors and two candidates of sciences in their family. The HEAD of the dynasty, Ivan Sheiko, is a world-famous scientist, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, first deputy general DIRECTOR of the Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for animal husbandry. The eldest son Ruslan Sheiko heads the Institute of Genetics and Cytology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The younger one, Yaroslav, is a leading researcher in the laboratory of animal genetics in the same institution. Hundreds of scientific developments of the Sheiko family have already brought billions in profits to the agricultural sector.

I had to walk 9 km to school

The future academician was born into a peasant family in the picturesque village of Soveiki, Lyakhovichi District, famous for its unique natural park of republican significance with luxurious maples, hornbeams, ash trees, as well as the Novitsky estate, which witnessed many great and tragic events.

- My father, Pavel Fedorovich, reached Berlin, and then participated in the defeat of the Kwantung Army. He returned home twice wounded, crippled, exhausted, but, most importantly, alive! Of the hundred of his fellow countrymen, the same age, only three met the Victory, - says the head of the dynasty. - He went through such hell that it was even scary to remember, but at the same time he did not waste either the warmth of his soul or kindness. Parents were workaholics, they tried their best to ensure that their children received a good education. Father often repeated the phrase "study never hurts." He dreamed that his bloodlines would go out to people, so that they would have a happier fate.

- Grandfather led a carpentry team for the repair and maintenance of buildings and knew how to do everything. He had golden hands, - adds the eldest son. - I remember carving a plane out of wood for me. With propeller and landing gear. Details were spinning, the plane was rolling… I just beamed with joy!

Ivan Sheiko had to go to school from the first to the fourth grade for three kilometers, from the fifth to the eighth - for five, and from the ninth to the eleventh - as much as nine! But he studied diligently, rejoiced when his father and mother were praised at parent meetings for raising their son.

From electrician to academician

As a child, Ivan Pavlovich did not even imagine that he would become a famous scientist, academician, receive the title of Honored Scientist and Honorary DOCTOR of Science, get acquainted with many outstanding people of the era and would talk with the President of Belarus more than once. His entire path from an electrician to an academician has become proof of how much a person who works for the good of the country, deeply masters knowledge and loves his people can do.

Together with Russian scientists, Ivan Sheiko was the first in the world to obtain animals with an integrated human lactoferrin gene. More than 15 years ago, in Zhodino, a goat LAK-1 was born from a transgenic goat mother, who was implanted with human DNA.

- Lactoferrin is a unique multifunctional breast MILK protein, a miracle elixir for the body, - explains the professor. - It is responsible for the formation of the child's immune system, helps to cope with colds, serves as the basis for the production of active supplements and medicines. Together with other drugs, lactoferrin can stop the effects of covid-19. The younger son Yaroslav conducted research with colleagues, and it turned out that human milk protein is effective even in the fight against cancer cells. Our experiments at first seemed risky and too costly to many. Only after more than 200 operations was it possible to integrate DNA into the goat genome. If anyone knew how much I once got for this goat! And today it turns out that we were ahead of time. In the world, the demand for lactoferrin is very high. Now, on the farm of the scientific and practical center in Zhodino, there is a herd of 160 heads of transgenic goats, and it could have been half a thousand - the matter rests on processing. But I do not lose hope that appropriate measures will be taken and we will enter the world market with the final product.

Ivan Sheiko is also the author of several breeds of pigs. For example, Belarusian MEAT is included in the State Register of Scientific Objects as a national treasure of the country. The highly productive breeding herds of pigs of the Belarusian Large White, Yorkshire, Landrace breeds have also gained wide popularity. The economic effect due to the use and sale of breeding stock is billions of rubles. Now, by order of the President, the scientist is creating a new factory type in the Duroc breed, which they plan to test in the country's basic farms.

Offered to become director of research institutes in Moscow

The founder of the scientific school of the highest level, Ivan Sheiko, has trained 45 candidates and 16 doctors of science.

- I am immensely glad of their successes, my pupils are a part of me, - he admits. - I also became a teacher to my sons. He created the Belarusian meat industry together with Ruslan. His Ph.D., and then his doctoral, were devoted to the improvement of this breed. And my mentor was Academician Vyacheslav Timofeevich Gorin. I consider him a second father, a man who gave a ticket to great science. It was through his efforts that I ended up at the Lipetsk branch of the All-Russian Research Institute of the breeding department in animal husbandry and continued my scientific research at a high level.

In the Chernozem region, the young specialist was entrusted with a department of three laboratories. Already at the age of 38, Ivan Sheiko successfully defended his doctoral thesis in Moscow. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR awarded him a Certificate of Honor for the development and implementation of factory types in pig breeding. And soon he received an offer to become the director of a research institute in Moscow.

“But I was drawn to my native places,” the scientist admits. - Still, the land where a person was born has a strong influence. It gives you a connection with the world and fills you with strength to live on.

In the late 1990s, Ivan Sheiko returned with his family to Zhodino, came to work at the Belarusian Research Institute of Animal Husbandry. The cozy Belarusian town beckoned him with memories. It was here that he once met his Elena the Beautiful, here his sons were born. Zhodino became the place where the scientist later went from leading employee and head of the laboratory of computational and analytical research to deputy director of the institute for science.

- I made the right choice. This is obvious, - notes Ivan Sheiko and emphasizes that the vector of the country's development in the field of science has also been chosen correctly. - A lot is being done in Belarus to strengthen the scientific and educational potential. To the envy of many, authoritative world-class scientific schools are successfully working in a number of fundamental areas, such as optics, quantum electronics, genetics, energy, materials science, mechanical engineering, and others.

- And our biological research is developing in accordance with global trends, - adds Ruslan Sheiko. - Fundamental scientific directions are getting a second wind, which in the future will form the basis of great scientific discoveries. The hallmark of our institute, for example, can be considered the study of human genetics. Scientists draw up hereditary maps of predisposition to diseases, have learned to identify innate talents. Thanks to the research of our specialists, thousands of couples have become parents. Our scientists are already close to answering how to defeat osteoporosis, which is called the "silent epidemic" of the 21st century. This is research of the highest order! Three years ago, the modernized Republican Center for Genomic Biotechnologies was opened with laboratories equipped with the most modern scientific equipment.

Yaroslav Sheiko, candidate of biological sciences, is engaged in the cultivation of human and animal cell cultures. He studies their division, movement, morphological features, for example, the problems of degeneration into cancerous types.

“One day he came to see me in Zhodino and said that he and his boss were going to eventually submit the results of their work for the Nobel Prize,” my father recalls. - I smiled and answered: the path to such an award is long and thorny. But I note that at the Institute of Genetics and Cytology in the early 2000s, they really conducted very serious research on this topic, and if they continue, the results can be impressive.

- It is difficult to make a big discovery in science, - Yaroslav Ivanovich agrees. - But we once started from scratch and were able to achieve some results. For them, as a young scientist, I received a Presidential scholarship at that time.

Today, scientists, including Belarusian geneticists, using a sequencer, can completely decipher the human genome in 25 hours. In the past, this process took decades.

It is not customary in the family to "press"

Ruslan and Yaroslav Sheiko grew up in an atmosphere of love for knowledge. Not only father, but also mother, candidate of biological sciences, showed by their example that science is a worthy and interesting way in life, albeit not an easy one. Such an atmosphere of creativity and intellectual freedom reigned in the family that it was simply impossible not to get carried away with research and scientific activities.

- Dad worked a lot and was constantly busy, but in order to be with us for an extra hour, he often took it with him everywhere. I remember how we shook with Yaroslav in an UAZ on the way to the pig farm, and then followed my father with a tail, watching how he takes blood samples, and then freezes it in liquid nitrogen in the laboratory, Ruslan Sheiko recalls. “It all seemed normal to us. But years later, I realized that then, in the chair of the head of the department, he did not shy away from rough work and did everything in good faith. For us, he was a role model. This is truly a man of science, a scientist from God with colossal diligence. He even goes to work on weekends: sometimes he reads, sometimes he writes scientific papers, sometimes he helps in research.

Ruslan Sheiko confirms the words of his younger brother:

- Dad always taught us diligence, decency, rational use of time. Love your country and respect the people you work with. We try to instill the same qualities in our children.

Despite the fact that Ruslan's daughters went their own way: the eldest works as a marketer at BelAZ, the youngest chose the tourism industry, none of the Sheiko family does not exclude that the dynasty of scientists will be continued.

- My daughter has a penchant for science, - notes Yaroslav. But I don't think it's worth jumping to conclusions. I will accept and support any of her choices, - after all, science cannot be done under duress, under duress, nothing good will come of it in this case.

By the way, this is exactly what, wisely, the head of the family did in his time. The older brother, Ruslan, showed great promise in football, played for the youth team of Lipetsk. The coach urged parents to give the child to professional sports.

- My father saw that I was also passionate about science, but he did not put pressure on me, but left me to choose for myself. After much deliberation, I did not apply to the Institute of Physical Education, as the coach advised, but to the Voronezh State Agrarian University. So my fate was decided, - the director of the Institute of Genetics and Cytology admits.

Sheiko's large family traditionally gathers every Sunday in the house of either the father or the elder brother.

- We can fry a barbecue, drink coffee, discuss the news. We have a pond where we catch fish in the fall. We respect physical labor. When the house was built, they did everything together, with their own hands - they dragged bricks, erected walls, laid plaster, - says the head of the clan. - Our family is very friendly. At the first call, everyone rushes to help.

Academician with the soul of a poet

Journalists call Ivan Sheiko an academician with the soul of a poet. His poems breathe romance and genuine tenderness for his native land. They contain touching childhood memories, a comprehensive pride in the lands dear to the heart and unchanging admiration for those thanks to whom he "filled every moment with meaning" and became a man. When asked what else Ivan Sheiko dreams of today, he answered in his characteristic poetic manner:

Oh, give me, God, strength, if you fall

Over the pain, zaizdrastsyu, packs, tight.

I cab without faith we can not find,

were syabry, my love.

Give, God, now, what do we ask for:

Syabram and relatives, if they didn’t know bad luck.

The cabin of the sun was warming, the rain was raining the rain,

Rally radzila and flower gardens.

Kab zzeysnits your zhytsevy smell,

Yashche I draw winter and spring,

Kab fellow countrymen maіm zusіm did not become troubles

I ў Belarus is happy to live.

| Elena ELOVIK, newspaper "7 days", photo by Maksim GUCHEK and from open Internet sources.

In the Year of Peace and Creation, the newspaper "7 days" starts a new project - "Dynasties". Teachers and doctors, rescuers and law enforcement officers, artists and engineers - these will be stories about families who have been creating material and spiritual benefits for their beloved country for decades. The project was created at the expense of targeted collection for the production of national content.

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