COM4S_M.TTF

Research Focus

Dr. Blagosklonny’s 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. In particular, he studied p53, Bcl-2, HIF-1, Bcr-Abl, Raf-1, EGF-R, Hsp90, microtubules, topoisomerases, the proteasome and histone deacetylases as anticancer drug targets in leukemia, breast, prostate, colon and lung cancers. Using paired cell lines, he has demonstrated selective killing of multidrug resistant cancer cells, cancer cells lacking p53 and cancer cells having deficient G1 and G2 checkpoints. His current goal is to develop drug combinations that selectively kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells.

Dr. Blagosklonny is the author or co-author of over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is Associate Editor of Cancer Research, Cell Death Differ, Cancer Biol Ther, Int. J. Cancer and Editor-in-Chief of Cell Cycle.

Selected Publications

• Blagosklonny MV. Sequential activation and inactivation of G2 checkpoints for selective killing of p53-deficient cells by microtubule-active drugs. Oncogene. 2002; 21:6249-54.
• Salnikow K, Kluz T, Costa M, Piquemal D, Demidenko ZN, Xie K, Blagosklonny MV. The regulation of hypoxic genes by calcium involves c-Jun/AP-1, which cooperates with hypoxia-inducible factor 1 in response to hypoxia. Mol Cell Biol. 2002; 22:1734-41.
• 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. 2004;64:3653-60.
• 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. 2005; 65: May 15.

Selected Conceptual Reviews

• Blagosklonny MV. Oncogenic resistance to growth-limiting conditions. Nat Rev Cancer. 2002;2:221-5.
• Blagosklonny MV, Pardee AB. Conceptual biology. Nature. 2002;416:373.
• Blagosklonny MV. Cell senesc ence and hypermitogenic arrest. EMBO Rep. 2003;4:358-62.
• Blagosklonny MV. Antiangiogenic therapy and tumor progression. Cancer Cell. 2004; 5:13 -7.
• Blagosklonny MV. How cancer could be cured by 2015. Cell Cycle. 2005;4:269-78.