Одесский национальный университет имени И. И. Мечникова
Gamaleya was born in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire. He graduated from Odessa's Novorossiysky University (now Odessa University) in 1880 and the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy (now the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy) in 1883. He became a respected hospital physician in his native Odessa afterward.