• Microbiology Professor in Peter Palese, Ph.D.’s department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
• Trained in Medical Microbiology by Jerome L. Schulman, Edward J. Bottone, and Henry D. Isenberg (L.I.J.).
• Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular Virology with Bernard Roizman, Sc.D. in the Marjorie B. Kovler Viral Oncology Laboratories at the University of Chicago.
• Ph.D. in Biochemistry with Robert D. Wells, Ph.D. at Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
• Certificate, International Program, University of Vienna, Austria.
• B.E. in Ch. E., minor in Physics, cum laude, from Manhattan College.
• NIH Study Section Member since 1997.
• American Heart Association Study Section Member.
• Ad hoc Virology Grant Reviewer for March of Dimes, Wellcome Trust, DoD, USDA, Israel Research Foundation.
• Editorial Board member of the Journal of Virology, Virology, and the Journal of Neurovirology.
• Specific Research Interests: Molecular Virology; Regulation of Herpes Simplex Virus Replication and Assembly; HSV - Host Cell Interactions, Apoptosis Modulation by HSV; Viral Oncoapoptosis of Human Tumor Cells.
  

Dr. Blaho has focused his research on the herpes simplex virus (HSV), with the goal of understanding the molecular events involved in the regulation of the replication of this human virus and also the mechanisms by which the virus causes cell death. Herpes simplex viruses are neurotropic viruses that cause a variety of infections, remain latent in the neurons of their host for life, and can be reactivated at any time to cause lesions at or near the initial site of infection. In 1999, Aubert and Blaho discovered that the major regulatory protein of HSV is required for the prevention of programmed cell death (apoptosis) in infected human cells.

Blaho and his associates have also defined the biology of the major protein component of the HSV virion and have discovered that HSV first induces and then prevents apoptosis during its replication cycle, a process the group has termed “Apoptosis Modulation by HSV.” An understanding of the processes of replication and reactivation is of great clinical importance because of the possibility of designing effective therapy that would interfere with one or another molecular pathway as a way to cure HSV infection. Blaho and his colleagues also hope to translate their findings into novel strategies for limiting uncontrolled cell growth such as is found in tumor cells by using a process they recently discovered called “viral oncoapoptosis.”

Blaho played a significant role in the teaching activities of the Department of Microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He served on numerous student advisory and examination committees and was responsible for the training of more than twenty Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. students. He directed the Graduate Microbiology Training Program and was both the director of the “Introduction to Microbiology” core Graduate School course and codirector of the Graduate School’s Microbiology Multidisciplinary Training Area. He directed the Graduate Advanced Virology course from 1997-2001. In 1999, Blaho led the preparation of the training grant proposal, funded by the NIH, that established a program in Mechanisms of Virus-Host Interactions. An active participant in science at the national level, Blaho serves on the editorial boards of the major virology journals and has been a permanent member of the NIH Virology and VIR A study sections.

Adapted from: Niss, B. J. and Aufses, A. H. Teaching Tomorrow’s Medicine Today: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1963-2003. New York University Press, New York, NY, 2005.