Member/Professor of Oncology
Department of Cell Stress Biology Biology

Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo NY 14263
Tel: 716-845-8086
Fax: 716-845-1860
E-mail: mikhail.blagosklonny@roswellpark.org

Dr. Blagosklonny received M.D. (internal medicine) and Ph.D. (experimental medicine, cardiology) from IP Pavlov Leningrad Medical University (St-Petersburg, Russia) and then conducted pre-clinical and clinical investigations in hematology, oncology and cardiology. In 1991, he moved to the Clinical Pharmacology Branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD), where he conducted both basic research and clinical trials.

In 2002, he was appointed Associate Professor of Medicine at New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY and then was recruited as Senior Scientist at Ordway Research Institute, Albany, NY. In 2009, he was appointed Professor/Member at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. His research interests range from molecular and cellular biology to clinical investigations and specifically include oncogenes and tumor suppressors, signal transduction, cell cycle, mitosis, apoptosis, anticancer therapeutics with emphasis on translation of basic science into new anticancer strategies such as exploiting cancer cell cycling and drug resistance for selective protection of normal cells. He has extended this approach to other age-related diseases and aging itself, thus revealing an anti-aging drug to be used today (Cell Cycle, 2006, 5 : 2087 - 2102).

Dr. Blagosklonny is the author of over 170 research articles, reviews and book chapters. He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Cell Cycle and also Co-editor and co-founder of Aging and also serves as an Associate Editor for Cancer Biology & Therapy, Autophagy, Cancer Research, Cell Death and Differentiation, International Journal of Cancer, The American Journal of Pathology and PLOS ONE.

Area of General Research Interest
• Cancer biology and therapy
• Selective targeting cancer cells using drug combinations
• Mechanisms of aging and anti-aging drugs

Current Program
• Targeted (restrictive) combinations of anti-cancer agents and protection of normal cells
• Suppression of aging for prevention of age-related diseases including cancer

Selected Publications
Blagosklonny MV, Robey R, Bates S, Fojo T. Pretreatment with DNA-damaging agents  permits selective killing of checkpoint-deficient cells by microtubule-active drugs. J. Clin. Invest. 105: 533-539, 2000.

An WG, Hwang SG, Trepel JB, Blagosklonny MV. Protease inhibitor-induced apoptosis: accumulation of wt p53, p21WAF1/CIP1, and induction of apoptosis are independent markers of proteasome inhibition. Leukemia 4: 1276-1283, 2000.

Giannakakou P, Sackett DL, Ward Y, Webster KR, Blagosklonny MV and Fojo T. (2000). P53 is associated with cellular microtubules and uses dynein-dependent transport for nuclear accumulation. Nature Cell Biol. 2, 709-717, 2000.

Salnikow K, Costa M,  Figg WD,  Blagosklonny MV. Hyper-inducibility of hypoxia-responsive genes without p53/p21 dependent checkpoint in aggressive prostate cancer. Cancer Res. 60,:5630-5634, 2000.

Blagosklonny MV.  Treatment with inhibitors of caspases, that are substrates of drug transporters, selectively permits chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in multidrug-resistant cells but protects normal cells. Leukemia 15: 936-941, 2001.

Giannakakou P, Robey R, Fojo T, Blagosklonny MV.  Low concentrations of paclitaxel induce cell type-dependent p53, p21 and G1/G2 arrest instead of mitotic arrest: molecular determinants of paclitaxel-induced cytotoxicity. Oncogene 20: 3806-3813, 2008.

Salnikow K, Kluz T, Costa M, Piquemal D, Demidenko ZN, Xie K, Blagosklonny MV. HIF-1-independent Regulation of Hypoxic Genes by Calcium Involve the c-Jun/AP-1 Pathway which Cooperates with HIF-1 During Hypoxia. Mol. Cell. Biol. 22: 1734-1741, 2002.

Blagosklonny MV. Sequential activation and inactivation of G2 checkpoints for selective killing of p53-deficient cells by microtubule-active drugs. Oncogene 21: 6249-54, 2002.

Demidenko ZN, Blagosklonny MV. Flavopiridol induces p53 via initial inhibition of Mdm2 and p21 and, independently of p53, sensitizes apoptosis-reluctant cells to tumor necrosis factor. Cancer Res. 64: 3653-60, 2004.

Demidenko ZN, Halicka D, Kunicki J, McCubrey JA, Darzynkiewicz Z, Blagosklonny MV. Selective killing of adriamycin-resistant (G2 checkpoint-deficient and MRP1-expressing) cancer cells by docetaxel. Cancer Res. 65: 4401-7, 2005.

Demidenko ZN, Rapisarda A, Garayoa M, Giannakakou P, Melillo G, Blagosklonny MV. Accumulation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha is limited by transcription-dependent depletion. Oncogene 24:4829-38, 2005.

Demidenko ZN, Vivo C, Halicka HD, Li CJ, Bhalla K, Broude EV, Blagosklonny MV. Pharmacological induction of Hsp70 protects apoptosis-prone cells from doxorubicin: comparison with caspase-inhibitor- and cycle-arrest-mediated cytoprotection. Cell Death Differ. 13:1434-41, 2006.

Demidenko ZN, Kalurupalle S, HankoC, Lim CU, Broude EV, Blagosklonny MV. Mechanism of G1-like arrest by low concentration of paclitaxel: next cell cycle p53- Dependent arrest with sub G1 DNA content mediated by prolonged mitosis. Oncogene. 27: 4402-10, 2008.

Demidenko ZN, Blagosklonny MV. Growth stimulation leads to cellular senescence when the cell cycle is blocked. Cell Cycle 7:3355-61, 2008.

Demidenko ZN, Zubova SG, Bukreeva EI, Pospelov VA, Pospelova TV, Blagosklonny MV. Rapamycin decelerates cellular senescence. Cell Cycle 8:1888-95.

Demidenko ZN, Blagosklonny MV. At concentrations that inhibit mTOR, resveratrol suppresses cellular senescence. Cell Cycle 8:1901-4, 2009.

Conceptual Reviews

Blagosklonny MV, Pardee AB. Exploiting cancer cell cycling for selective protection of normal cells. Cancer Res. 61: 4301-4305, 2001.

Blagosklonny MV. Oncogenic resistance to growth-limiting conditions. Nature Reviews Cancer  2, 221-225, 2002.

Blagosklonny MV. Cell senescence and hypermitogenic arrest. EMBO Rep. 4:358-62, 2003.

Blagosklonny MV. Targeting cancer cells by exploiting their resistance. Trends Mol Med. 9:307-12, 2003.

Blagosklonny MV. Matching targets for selective cancer therapy. Drug Discov Today 8:1104-7, 2003.

Blagosklonny MV. Antiangiogenic therapy and tumor progression. Cancer Cell 5:13-7, 2004.

Blagosklonny MV. Prospective strategies to enforce selectively cell death in cancer cells. Oncogene 23:2967-75, 2004.

Blagosklonny MV. How cancer could be cured by 2015. Cell Cycle 4:269-78, 2005.

Blagosklonny MV. Overcoming limitations of natural anticancer drugs by combining with artificial agents. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 26:77 81, 2005.

Blagosklonny MV. Carcinogenesis, cancer therapy and chemoprevention. Cell Death Differ. 12:592-602, 2005.

Blagosklonny MV. An anti-aging drug today: from senescence-promoting genes to anti-aging pill. Drug Discov Today 12:218-24, 2007.

Blagosklonny MV. "Targeting the absence" and therapeutic engineering for cancer therapy.Cell Cycle 7:1307-12, 2008.

Blagosklonny MV. Prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. Cancer Biol Ther. 2008;7: 1520-1524, 2008.

Blagosklonny MV. Aging: ROS or TOR. Cell Cycle 7:3344-54, 2008.

Blagosklonny MV and Hall MN. Growth and Aging: a common molecular mechanism. Aging 1: 357-362, 2009.