It is with great sadness and heavy heart that we announce the recent passing of Dr. Mikhail (Misha) V. Blagosklonny, our beloved Editor-in-Chief. Misha succumbed to metastatic lung cancer after a courageous battle.

Dr. Blagosklonny will be remembered as a brilliant and extraordinary scientist who dedicated his life to science. He was a visionary thinker, who made highly original contributions to cancer and aging research that were often ahead of their time.

Dr. Blagosklonny was born into a family of scientists. His mother, Professor of Medicine Yanina V. Blagosklonnaya, specialized in endocrinology and was a talented teacher, mentoring several generations of medical students. His father, Professor Vladimir M. Dilman, was a brilliant gerontologist, endocrinologist and oncologist, known for being a very charismatic person. He was the first person to encourage Misha to think about nature, aging, and philosophy.

Misha was a theorist by nature. While in school, he was deeply interested in physics and dreamed of becoming a theoretical physicist. Eventually, he chose biology, driven to study aging and age-related diseases, including cancer. He started as an experimentalist, but over the years, he became a theoretical biologist. In a way, his dream came true.

Full tribute to Misha: https://www.oncotarget.com/news/pr/tribute-to-dr-mikhail-misha-blagosklonny/