For Immediate Release
June 13, 2007

 BUFFALO, NY- Andrei V. Gudkov, PhD, DSci, a pre-eminent cancer researcher has been appointed as Senior Vice President for Basic Research; Chair of the Department of Cell Stress Biology, and a member of the senior leadership team for National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI).

Dr. Gudkov will be responsible for building on the basic and translational research strengths of the Cell Stress Biology program in DNA damage and repair, photodynamic therapy, thermal and hypoxic stress and immune modulation. As Senior Vice President, he will assist the President & CEO in developing and implementing strategic plans for new scientific programs and enhance collaborations in research programs with regional and national academic centers as well as with industry. Dr. Gudkov also will be relocating the headquarters and core operations of Cleveland Biolabs, a biomedical company he founded in 2003, to the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

“Dr. Gudkov is an extremely successful researcher and an established leader in drug discovery and development,” said Donald L. Trump, MD, President and CEO, Roswell Park Cancer Institute. “His appointment not only ensures the continuation of innovative scientific research at Roswell Park but will allow Roswell Park to forge new and invigorate partnerships with key medical scientific communities - locally, nationally and internationally.” 

Dr. Gudkov comes to Roswell Park from the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he served as chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and professor of biochemistry at Case Western University. He earned his doctoral degree in Experimental Oncology at the Cancer Research Center, USSR and a Doctorate of Science (D.Sci) in Molecular Biology at the Moscow State University, USSR. He has authored or co-authored 135 scientific articles and holds 27 patents.

Dr. Gudkov’s broad research interests involve several distinct but highly integrated branches of study. He focuses on identifying new disease-associated genes and deciphering molecular mechanisms of activity of their products as potential targets for therapeutic modulation by molecules or peptides and is developing and applying new technologies for functional gene discovery, which may lead to designing new therapeutic approaches to cancer treatment.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation’s first cancer research, treatment and education center and is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. RPCI is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers. Roswell Park has affiliate sites and collaborative programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and in China. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or e-mail askrpci@roswellpark.org.

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