Matvey Antonovich BABICH (March 4, 1900 – March 21, 1979) one of the founders of veterinary biochemistry in Kazakhstan, head of the biochemical laboratory of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Institute of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR (1930-1932), senior chemist of the Factory of Endocrine Drugs of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR (1932-1934), head of the biochemical laboratory of the Scientific Control Institute of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR (1934-1940), the first head of the biochemical laboratory of the Kazakh Research Veterinary Institute (1940-1944), Candidate of Biological Sciences (1940), Head of the Biochemical Laboratory of the State Scientific Control Institute (1944-1951), Senior researcher with a degree in Biochemistry (1950), Doctor of Veterinary Sciences (1952), Professor with a degree in Biological Chemistry (1952).

M.A. Babich was born in the village of Lyady, Igumen district, Minsk province, in a peasant family.

In 1913, he entered the teachers’ seminary located in the town of Bogushevichi, Igumen district, from which he graduated in 1917 and was sent to the position of a school worker in the village of Lochino in the same county, where he worked until 1919. In the same year, he entered the secondary agricultural school in the village of Maryina-Gorka, Igumen district, after which, in 1923, he was left at the school as a farm manager.

In 1925, M.A. Babich entered the veterinary faculty of the Moscow Zootechnical Institute, from which he graduated in 1930 and was awarded the qualification of a veterinarian.

Upon graduation, M.A. Babich was sent to research work at the FMD Institute of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR and accepted the position of head of the biochemical laboratory. In 1930, the institute sent him for an internship at the Moscow Biochemical Institute. During the internship period, he mastered physico-chemical and biochemical research methods, conducted extensive experimental work under the guidance of well-known biochemists. After completing his internship, M.A.Babich started working at the FMD Institute.

In 1932, M.A. Babich was seconded to the Vetsnabprom Trust, where he received a new appointment as a senior chemist at the Endocrine Drugs Factory of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the USSR.

In 1934, he was mobilized from the factory and sent to the Scientific Control Institute of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR, where he headed the biochemical laboratory.

By the decision of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR in March 1940, M.A. Babich was sent to work at KazSRVI as head of the biochemical laboratory.

On June 25, 1940, at a meeting of the Scientific Council of the Moscow Veterinary Institute, M.A. Babich successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Biological Sciences on the topic: “Meat hydrolysate media for the cultivation of microbes for the preparation of biological products”.

On November 12, 1944, by order of the military representative and a member of the Board of the People’s Commissariat of the USSR, M.A. Babich, by way of transfer, was re-appointed head of the biochemical laboratory of the GNKI for veterinary drugs.

On June 12, 1951, at a meeting of the Scientific Council of the RES, M.A. Babich brilliantly defended his doctoral dissertation “The use of meat hydrolysate media in the production of biological preparations” and then was approved with the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Sciences and the academic title of professor.

On July 1, 1972, M.A. Babich was dismissed from the post of head of the biochemical laboratory of the State Veterinary Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture of the USSR in connection with retirement and transferred as a consultant to the named laboratory, where he worked until October 1, 1975.

M.A. Babich is the author of more than 80 scientific papers and inventions, many of which have been introduced into veterinary practice.

Professor M.A. Babich was one of the major specialists in the USSR in the field of development and control of nutrient media and biological preparations.

Matvey Antonovich left a very bright trace in Kazakhstan veterinary biochemistry. Thus, the opening of the biochemical laboratory in KazSRVI in March 1940 is associated with the name of M.A. Babich. The laboratory headed by him mastered the latest methods of biochemical research in the shortest possible time, carried out a number of fundamental studies on the preparation of nutrient media, modified the technology for producing cue-may and obtained the adsorbent of colloidal systems.

Under the guidance of M.A. Babich and with his direct participation, research was conducted on the development of new nutrient media (technology for the manufacture of meat hydrolysate media, production of peptone and globulin preparations, preparation of a nutrient medium for the cultivation of pathogenic leptospira, citrate method for the production of hyperimmune serums, preparation of bacterial growth stimulants by using native extracts of parenchymal organs, etc.), biochemistry bacteria, the study of animal immunity, control and standardization of ingredients used for the manufacture of nutrient media and biological products.

Matvey Antonovich buried in Moscow.