17 Facts About Mirko Beljanski

Mirko Beljanski was a French-Serbian molecular biologist who studied bacteria, its resistance to antibiotics and the interaction of RNA and DNA.

Mirko Beljanski performed research at the CNRS and the Pasteur Institute, discovering reverse transcriptase in bacteria in 1971.

Mirko Beljanski's father was an iron worker, his mother a seamstress, and had two older sisters.

Mirko Beljanski attended lyceum in Novi Sad while living with an uncle.

Mirko Beljanski decided to study in France where he met and married Monique Lucas, daughter of Rene Lucas and granddaughter of Pauline Ramart.

Mirko Beljanski received a PhD in 1948 from the University of Paris and began working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris as a researcher in molecular biology.

Mirko Beljanski published several articles on how bacteria accumulated RNAs during the acquisition of resistance to different antibiotics.

In 1951, the grant Mirko Beljanski was working under expired but he was allowed to stay in France to continue his research.

Mirko Beljanski worked at the Institute with Michel Macheboeuf, but left in 1953 upon the death of Macheboeuf.

Mirko Beljanski joined the CNRS where he continued his research.

Mirko Beljanski returned to the Pasteur Institute in 1959 where he worked alongside his wife Monique and under Jacques Monod, the new head of the Pasteur Institute.

Mirko Beljanski believed he had found antivirals effective against cancer and AIDS.

Mirko Beljanski's compounds were used in France and other European countries.

In 1994, Mirko Beljanski was charged with illicit practice of medicine, later being found not guilty of the charges.

Mirko Beljanski was charged by the French Department of Health for the illicit practice of pharmacy in 1995, but died in 1998 before the case was heard in court.

In 1996, Mirko Beljanski's laboratory was seized after the death of Mitterrand.

Mirko Beljanski died from cancer in Paris on 27 October 1998.