Coronavirus: head of Russian vaccine stabbed to death and shot from 14th floor

A standout Russian scientist, who was investigating a Covid-19 vaccine, died this weekend after being stabbed and thrown from a 14th floor of an apartment in St. Petersburg.

Alexander “Sasha” Kagansky, 45, was killed: he was lying on the sidewalk and in his underwear, according to the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK).

The Russian investigative committee has opened a case for homicide. One of the hypotheses is that in the department where the biologist was a fight would have taken place, the researchers detailed in the reports.

In the last hours police arrested a man 45 years as a potential suspect for questioning, e2news.com reported.

Kagansky was a geneticist working on the development of one of Russia’s candidate coronavirus vaccines, although it was not specified whether he did so in the Sputnik-V or an alternative.

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Expert I came to visit this city to meet friends. While he lived in Vladivostok, a major port city in the country, located in the bay of the Golden Horn, near the borders with China and North Korea.

Kagansky was part of the Global Young Academy And, upon hearing the tragic news, they dedicated a heartfelt message to her on their website: “Sasha was one of the most active members of GYA and a true inspiration. We are deeply saddened and affected by his untimely death and we join his family and friends in mourning this tragic loss. Sasha was a member of GYA from 2015-2020, and during that time she forged countless meaningful relationships and initiated and collaborated on many inspiring projects, ”they wrote.

Who was Alexandre “Sasha” Kagansky, the scientist murdered in Russia?

As stated on your CV, posted on the GYA website, Alexander “Sasha” Kagansky He was Director of a Center for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine at the Faculty of Biomedicine of the Federal University of the Far East in Vladivostok, Russia. He had recently received a grant from local authorities to research new ways to diagnose and treat malignant tumors, which would be the key to the future of molecular medicine. In his studies, he combined genetics, synthetic biology, biochemistry and proteomics.

Before, had worked for 13 years at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, where he was a member of the team of the Human Genetics Unit of the MRC, of ​​the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine of this house of studies.

From 2005 to 2012, “Sasha” worked at Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology from the same university, as a postdoctoral research associate and later as a research associate Senior.

In 1998 he got his Master in Biophysics from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University in Russia. Six years later Doctorate in Molecular Biology, after spending three years at the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In addition to laboratory research, Kagansky has regularly organized scientific public participation activities for different groups, including artists, elementary school students and the general public, in different regions of the world.

In 1991, when the USSR collapsed, he was the first Russian delegate to the European Youth Parliament.