We are pleased to welcome Mikhail (Misha) Nikiforov, Ph.D., to Duke. Nikiforov is coming to us from the Wake Forest School of Medicine and Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he was Professor of Cancer Biology and co-Leader of the Cancer Genetics and Metabolism Program. He graduated with honors from Lomonosov Moscow State University, and obtained his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Chicago. After postdoctoral training at University of Rochester and Princeton University, Nikiforov joined the Department of Dermatology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as Assistant Professor. His studies of the mechanisms of melanoma initiation were supported by a Dermatology Foundation Career Development Award and Melanoma Research Foundation Junior Investigator Award.
From 2008 to 2018, he worked as Associate Professor and Professor at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center where his research programs on melanoma progression and metabolism and multiple myeloma drug resistance were supported by multiple National Cancer Institute grants and American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant. In 2018, he joined Wake Forest School of Medicine. In addition to the NCI grants, his work was sponsored by the International Myeloma Foundation Brian D. Novis Senior Research Award.
Nikiforov has published a considerable number of high visibility papers in the fields of melanoma and multiple myeloma. He joins us as Professor and his research focus will be on identifying the metabolic vulnerabilities in these malignancies.
We are very excited he has joined our Department of Pathology!