Abstract
It was a sad day when I received news about the sudden and unexpected passing of Dr. Andrei E. Medvedev in late July while he was in Russia visiting his mother. Andrei was a great scientist and friend. He completed his PhD in Moscow and came to Terje Espevik’s lab at NTNU in Norway in 1993 as a postdoc, where I met him. He moved to the US in 1996 to join Stefanie Vogel’s lab at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda. In 2002, Stefanie and Andrei relocated to the University of Maryland, and Andrei moved through the ranks there, becoming an Associate Professor with his own lab. Later, he moved to the UConn Health Center in 2013.
Andrei’s main research interests were signaling in the innate immune system and identifying the molecular mechanisms of host responses to serious infections. At NTNU he started to work with TNF receptors, NF-kB and, later, LPS and other ligands that interacted with receptors such as CD14 and CR3. At USUHS and University of Maryland he focused more on endotoxin/LPS, and was also a part of the TLR “wave” that swept the innate immunity field at that time. One of his finest contributions was a paper in The Journal of Experimental Medicine (2003) describing mutations in the IRAK-4 signaling molecule in a patient with recurrent serious bacterial infections and hypo-responsiveness to LPS. This strongly supported the view that TLR/IL-1/IL-18 signaling was a key component of human anti-bacterial defenses. Andrei was a well-funded and very productive scientist, perhaps especially known for solid investigations, great biochemistry, persistence, and particular attention to detail. He had many papers investigating mechanisms associated with endotoxin signaling and tolerance, the altered cellular state induced by an initial exposure to LPS before later challenge, also observed in vivo. Many of his papers studied TLRs and downstream signaling components, such as IRAK and Tollip. Lately, he had also been interested in long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) and their regulation of innate immunity.
Andrei was a long-time member of IEIIS, and very interested in society matters. He was often seen at the IEIIS meetings, he received a Young Investigator Award, and was a scientific councilor and helped with the Innate Immunity journal. He was a good and caring colleague with many collaborators and was always interested in other people’s work.
While Andrei was known to be very serious about his research, he also had a great sense of humor. I especially remember a trip to a research retreat for our Department of Cancer Research at NTNU in the mid/early 90s. We had a chartered train ride that took a few hours, and after Andrei’s arrival to Terje’s lab the natural theme for the ride was Russia. We were served caviar and vodka shots, listened to Russian music, and some people even dressed up for the occasion. Andrei was brimming with joy and grinned for the whole trip. I was lucky enough to stay in regular email contact with Andrei even after our ways parted, and saw him at meetings, in Maryland, at UMass and at UConn, and he always greeted me with a big smile.
Andrei was a devoted family man and was very proud of his children Anton and Anastassia. After he started at UConn he commuted most weekends to his beloved wife Svetlana and their home in Maryland by car – a trip that takes at least 6 hrs one way. Warm wishes go to Svetlana, Anton, and Anastassia at this difficult time.
Andrei will be sorely missed by his colleagues and friends.
Egil Lien
UConn has established a memorial fund in his name that will support presentations by young investigators. For those interested in contributing, the details are listed below:
UConn Foundation
Attn: Aaron Frankel
10 Talcott Notch Road Suite 100
Farmington CT 06032, USA.
Indicate “In Honor of Dr. Medvedev” on your donation.