Dr. John Blenis

John Blenis received his Ph.D in 1983 from our Department. His thesis work defined proteins and glycosaminoglycans of the extracellular matrix specific to transformed cells, particularly chicken embryo fibroblasts transformed by Rous sarcoma virus. He worked in the lab of Dr. Susan Hawkes, of Michigan Molecular Institute in Midland, adjunct BMB faculty member. Now a professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, John Blenis and his lab have made seminal contributions to our understanding of structurally distinct subfamilies of the growth factor-regulated S6 kinases: pp70S6K and pp90RSK. Blenis' work has lead to major breakthroughs in the signal transduction field. He was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and a recipient of the NIH/NCI MERIT award on "Mitogenic and Oncogenic Regulation of ERK/RSK Signaling."