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She doesn’t like to sit for too long, nor stand. Her thermos of water must be kept constantly topped up. Her fitness tracker constantly sets off reminders. While Melnikova prefers not to discuss her illness, it’s clear that it looms over her every thought. From the moment she entered my office with fresh coffee and croissants for our meeting, her vibrant energy swirled around the room. Specialist Lera “Finka” Melnikova has a dynamic personality that often takes a backseat in past reports because of her chronic illness.
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Melnikova stands out as the go-to biological warfare expert in CTU joint exercises. She joined the Army and became the Spetsnaz CBRN Specialist. Her research directly saved Spetsnaz operators from hazardous materials, resulting in an Order of Honour that opened her eyes to new possibilities. Melnikova’s ground-breaking research into self-driven monomer motors continues to advance medical science and military technology. She remained at NSU in the Biotechnology and Virology Laboratory, collaborating remotely with the Research Institute of Fundamental and Clinical Immunology to research treatments for a variety of pathogens and neuropathies, including her own. She studied Cytology and Genetics at Novosibirsk State University, graduating with a PhD in Molecular Biology. Driven by her own childhood illness and that of those around her, Melnikova grew up determined to find a cure. “The hand you get dealt isn’t the one you have to keep.”īorn north of Chernobyl in Gomel, Belarus, Melnikova grew up around people already suffering from birth defects.
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