Mikhail V. Blagosklonny
Proposed the hyperfunction theory of ageing: TOR signalling that builds a young body never fully switches off, and drives its ageing instead
Professor of Oncology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo (2009–2024) · founding Editor-in-Chief, Cell Cycle, Aging, Oncotarget, Oncoscience · NCI, Univ. of Pennsylvania, New York Medical College, Ordway Research Institute · Fogarty Fellowship, NIH · MD & PhD, Pavlov First State Medical University, St. Petersburg · died October 2024
In memoriam / Aging (Aging-US) editor profile (Buffalo, New York, USA) ↗
Portrait: blagosklonny.com
In 2009 (DEM2009), showed that blocking a cell's division while mTOR keeps driving growth tips it into permanent senescence — rapamycin uncouples growth from division, keeping arrest reversible. This anchored his 2006 theoretical paper (BLA2006) proposing the 'hyperfunction theory' of aging: growth-driving TOR signaling stays 'quasi-programmed' on past development and drives age-related disease.
Trained as a physician-scientist in Russia, moved through NIH, NCI, Penn, NYMC, Ordway before Roswell Park (2009). Founded and edited Cell Cycle, Aging, Oncotarget, Oncoscience — shaping how much of the geroscience field published for over a decade.
A polarizing, outspoken figure who publicly took rapamycin himself and advocated it for healthy people, well ahead of completed human trials — a position most of the field still treats as premature. Died October 2024 of metastatic lung cancer; over 290 peer-reviewed papers.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | R | Aging and immortality: quasi-programmed senescence and its pharmacologic inhibition BLA2006 Proposes the hyperfunction theory of aging. |
| 2009 | M | Rapamycin decelerates cellular senescence DEM2009 Shows the key experiment: blocking division while mTOR keeps driving growth tips cells into permanent senescence; rapamycin keeps arrest reversible. |
| 2011 | A | Rapamycin increases lifespan and inhibits spontaneous tumorigenesis in inbred female mice ANI2011 Senior author: shows that intermittent rapamycin (2 weeks in every month) extends lifespan and delays spontaneous tumours in female 129/Sv inbred mice. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Mikhail V. Blagosklonny.
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- Vladimir N. Anisimov Russian gerontologist and oncologist who studied the links between ageing and cancer, and whose group tested drugs such as metformin and rapamycin for effects on lifespan and spontaneous tumours in mice
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