Marble sculptures, model trains and chamomile tea

For many among Auburn University’s research faculty, it’s not all lab work and no play. Quite the contrary, as some enjoy unique and very diverse hobbies that reflect some exceptional talents and skills even beyond those displayed in their research endeavors.

Part 3:

Vitaly Vodyanoy is an Alumni Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine. He is known for his research that has greatly improved the field of high-resolution light microscopy. His research also is focused on sensory physiology, receptors, cancer cells, biosensors, cell membranes, monolayers and bilayers, molecular recognition, olfactory receptor neurons, nanoparticles, biopolymers, bacteriophages, primo-vascular system and light microscopy. Vodyanoy also links his study and interest in herbal medicine to his work.

Auburn Research wanted to learn more about some of the interesting extracurricular hobbies enjoyed by some faculty. This Q&A segment is the result of chatting with Vodyanoy about his hobby of studying herbal remedies:

How long have you been involved in your hobby?
I have been interested in herbs for as long as I can remember. Later in life, living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, I made trips to local fields and forests to collect herbs and mushrooms. I have lived in Auburn for the last 32 years, and I continue my devotion to studying the medicinal properties of herbs.

What about your hobby interested you and how did you get started?
As a kid, I was fascinated with herbs, their variety, flowers and the magic they could bring to our life. Later, I got curious about their abilities to replace drugs to treat various conditions such as colds, headaches or sleeplessness.

Does your hobby require raw materials?
It does require herbs. Long ago I was able to pick up wild herbs, but now it is prohibited to collect anything in public places. I obtain my plants from herbal companies.

Do you consider your hobby to be an expensive activity in terms of monetary investment and time?
Herbs are not cost prohibitive and it doesn’t take a lot of time. I spend about two hours each week studying herbal medicine.

Does your hobby provide any benefit to others, or is this strictly an outlet for your own enjoyment/benefit/creativity?
I hope it will be useful in the future. So far, it benefits my research in the college. According to ancient sources, herbs were able to cure serious illnesses, like diabetes, cancer and many other diseases. I spent some time studying works of ancient masters and have been able to reproduce some of their preparations: Galen (129-199 AD), Avicenna (980-1037AD), Hieronymus Braunschweig (1450-1512) and Paracelsus (1493-1541). I was interested in methods they used in their preparations. It was very difficult to reproduce Galen’s and Braunschweig’s preparations, because they use dew from the growing plant as a water. They produced alcohol from the same plants. However, if I used regular pure water and alcohol, I was able to reproduce some of Galen’s preparations. I was very much interested in Paracelsus’ method, because it was best described in his books. I cannot give many details, but the method included water and alcohol extractions, calcination, carbonization in open flame, extraction, evaporation, and exaltation. I reproduced the Paracelsus experiment in my improvised environment. When this Paracelsus preparation was analyzed by electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and electron diffraction, it revealed large concentrations of small metal nanoparticles of iron, zinc, gold, platinum, and many other metals. In my laboratory, I replaced Paracelsus’ method by centrifugation, ultra-filtration, and other contemporary techniques, and was able to get the same metal nanoparticles. I was able to obtain metal nanoparticles from plants, cell tissues and blood samples. Then, we found that a cocktail of these particles could kill cancer cells, and in 2005 we published these results. I consider this publication to have been inspired by my hobby and Paracelsus’ ideas. Later, we published quite a few articles and generated a few U.S. patents using these nanoparticles. Finally, we learned how to make these nanoparticles from pure metals (plants and tissues are not involved). There is a company in the United Kingdom that is going to test our particles for medicinal purposes.

Do you have future expansion plans for your hobby?
No. I just plan to continue enjoying studying herbs and searching for new ideas from them.

--Interview by Mitch Emmons

Return to Part 1