معرفی
Dimitar Nikolov is a Professor at the Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, with dual faculty appointments at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Weill Cornell Medicine. His primary academic affiliation resides within the Department of Biochemistry & Structural Biology, and he maintains secondary affiliations with the Neuroscience program through the Tri-Institutional partnership between Weill Cornell Medicine, MSKCC, and The Rockefeller University.
Dr. Nikolov's educational background includes:
- B.S. and M.S. in Physics and Biology from the University of Sofia, Bulgaria (1991-1996)
- Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from The Rockefeller University (1996)
His research employs structural biology techniques to investigate molecular mechanisms of cell-cell communication, with emphasis on membrane receptor-ligand interactions and signal transduction pathways. The laboratory specializes in X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM to resolve structures of critical signaling complexes including ephrins/Eph receptors, netrins/DCC/Unc5, and angiopoietins/Ties, while examining the regulatory role of ADAM metalloproteases in membrane signaling. Current translational efforts focus on developing conformation-specific monoclonal antibodies targeting Eph receptors and ADAM proteases for cancer and neurodegenerative disease therapeutics.
Dr. Nikolov actively participates in graduate education through the Weill Cornell Graduate School, mentoring students in structural biology and translational research within the Biochemistry & Structural Biology and Neuroscience programs. His laboratory operates within the Tri-Institutional Structural Biology Center, leveraging shared resources for high-resolution structural analysis.
The Nikolov laboratory maintains active structural studies on ADAM metalloproteases and Eph receptor complexes, with ongoing projects developing therapeutic antibodies that selectively inhibit substrate recognition domains. This work bridges fundamental structural insights with therapeutic applications in oncology and neuroscience.
