Alexander Kagansky

Biography

Alexander (Sasha) Kagansky was a Director of a Center for Genomic and Regenerative Medicine, School of Biomedicine at the Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia. Research in the centre is aimed at the understanding of the molecular basis of the cell fate in normal cells and disease, drug discovery and at finding ways to cure cancer and regenerate tissues, which will be crucial for the future of molecular medicine. In his studies he combined genetics, synthetic biology, biochemistry and proteomics.  Before he was a Chancelor’s Fellow at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, and led the research at the Synthetic Epigenetics Lab. In 2005 – 2012 Sasha worked at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, as a postdoctoral research associate (Robin Allshire lab, until 2010) and then as senior research associate (Bill Earnshaw lab). He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 2004 after spending 3 years in National Institutes of Health in USA. In 1998 he got his MS in Biophysics from from St.Petersburg State Polytechnical University in Russia. Apart from the research in the lab, Sasha Kagansky was regularly organizing public engagement of science activities for different target group: artists, primary school kids, and general public, in different parts of the world, which resulted in new collaborations between scientists and artists. In 1991, he was a first Russian delegate to the European Youth Parliament. He was also a member of Young Academy of Scotland.