Turpaev, Tigran

Turpaev, Tigran Mel’kumovich 

Born Oct. 20,1918, in Astrakhan. Soviet physiologist. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Turpaev graduated from the department of biology of Moscow State University in 1941. From 1941 to 1946 he served in the Soviet Army. In 1948 he became a research worker at the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Animal Morphology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1961 he became head of one of the institute’s laboratories. In 1967 he was appointed deputy director of the Institute of Developmental Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1974 he was made the institute’s director.

Turpaev’s main works deal with comparative physiology and the physiology of the transmission of nerve impulses in chemical synapses. Turpaev proved the protein nature of the receptor of acetylcholine—the transmitter of nerve impulses. He also discovered the biochemical mechanism of self-regulation of the mediator process in cholinergic synapses.

Turpaev has been awarded two orders and various medals.

WORKS

Mediatornaia funktsiia atsetilkholina i priroda cholinoretseptora. Moscow, 1962.
“Biokhimicheskii mekhanizm samoreguliatsii kholinergicheskogo mediatomogo protsessa.” Uspekhi fiziologicheskikh nauk, 1974, vol. 5. (With T. G. Putintseva.)