The department was founded in 1963 on the basis of laboratory of plant substances, supervised at various time-periods by Professor G.V. Pigulevsky and Associate professor A.A. Ryabinin. The main direction of research interests was the investigation of plant substances, mainly lipids. The first head of the department was Professor Vyacheslav F. Martynov. The foundation of the department allowed opening of new direction and possibilities to educate specialists in the areas of: bioorganic chemistry, chemistry of natural and physiologically active compounds, as well as broadening the area of scientific research by the development of new direction in Russia – synthesis of peptides and investigation of their biological properties. Later, in 1975, Professor Alexander Shavva founded another direction – the total synthesis and investigation of biological properties of steroidal hormones.