Galina Bolshakova graduated in biology from the Moscow State Lomonosov University in 1973. She studied age- and topography-related patterns of cardiocyte proliferation after various injuries in rats and received her PhD in 1980 in Laboratory of Growth and Development at Human Morphology Institute of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. From 1994 to 2001 she served as head of the Laboratory of Morphological Scanning and of New Techniques of Cell and Tissue Conservation at Human Morphology Institute developing new methods of plastination and 3D reconstruction of biological structures. From 2001 to 2003 she had been a director of Human Morphology Ltd. (Russia) working with computer-aided methods in biology. From 2003 to 2009 she was a Senior Research Assistant at the Laboratory of Growth and Development, Human Morphology Institute studying regeneration of mammalian heart and bone using the methods of morphology and stereology. In 2010 Galina Bolshakova received her Doctor of Sciences in Histology, Cytology and Cell Biology for the stereological study of myocardial repair during rat prenatal ontogenesis. She found that the healing of large injuries in fetuses was less complete than in adults because of tissue immaturity. From 2010 to present she is head of Laboratory of Growth and Development at Human Morphology Institute. The laboratory examines the impact of multipotent stromal cells on angiogenesis as well as heart and liver regeneration and the contribution of macrophages to these processes.