5 February][1] – 29 March 1949[2]) was a Russian and Soviet physician and scientist who played a pioneering role in microbiology and vaccine research.

Gamaleya was born in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, into the family of a retired officer who participated in the Battle of Borodino.

[5] Despite the poor facilities and the small staff, the scientists were able to succeed in figuring out the conditions under which the rabies vaccination was most effective.

Reporting of the lysis of Bacillus anthracis bacteria by a transmissible "ferment" in 1898, Gamaleya was the discoverer of the bacteria-destroying antibodies known as bacteriolysins.

[7] Gamaleya initiated a public health campaign of exterminating rats to fight the plague in Odessa and southern Russia and pointed to the louse as the carrier of typhus.