Master of Science
Kiev State University, 1983

Doctor of Philosophy
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine, Ph.D., 1990

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Molecular Biology, Neuroscience
National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1991-1994

Our laboratory studies the effects of anticancer drugs and ionizing radiation on the mammalian cell cycle, including the role of cell cycle checkpoints in tumor cell susceptibility to treatment and damage-induced perturbations of the cell cycle, especially mitosis; and cellular and molecular mechanisms of mitotic catastrophe (abnormal mitosis that leads to eventual cell death or senescence), which is induced by DNA-damaging agents and by damage-inducible cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor proteins in normal and tumor cells. In recent years, the main focus of my studies was on the role of transcription-regulating kinase CDK8 and its interactive proteins in breast cancer.

These studies combine methods of cell biology, pharmacology, experimental oncology in animal models and molecular genetics with advanced fluorescence and live video microscopy and flow cytometry techniques. Elucidation of the mechanisms of cell cycle perturbation, stress-induced transcription and treatment-induced adaptation and resistance should help in developing new drugs, improving the efficacy of existing anticancer agents, developing new agents and understanding the basic mechanisms of cancer control.

Research topics of interest include the following:

• Role of transcription-regulating kinases in cancer
• Breast cancer targeted therapy
• Effects of anticancer drugs
• Tumor microenvironment and metastasis