Ruslan M Medzhitov, PhD
David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Departments & Organizations
Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS): Immunology: Computational Immunology | Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and DevelopmentCancer Immunology
Immunobiology(
Liver Center)
Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center
Immunology and Immunotherapy
Molecular Virology
Biography
Medzhitov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and earned a B.S. at Tashkent State University before going on to pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Moscow University in 1990. At that time the Soviet Union was disintegrating and funding for science was drying up. Because laboratories were short of supplies, Medzhitov spent much of his time in the library, reading about modern biomedical science.There, he came upon a paper by Yale immunobiologist Charles Janeway (now deceased), who was studying how the innate immune system, an evolutionarily ancient system found in all multicellular animals, interacts with the adaptive immune system, found only in vertebrates. Medzhitov wrote to Janeway and was accepted for postdoctoral study at Yale, arriving in 1994. The two researchers made the groundbreaking discovery that Toll-like receptors, a component of the innate system, provide the adaptive system with the necessary information to create custom-made B and T cells that target specific bacterial or viral invaders.
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Education
- Ph.D., Moscow State University, 1993
Selected Publication
- Kagan, J.C. and Medzhitov, R. (2006). Phosphoinositide-mediated adaptor recruitment controls Toll-like receptor signaling. Cell 125(5):943-55.
Latest Honor and Recognition
- 2010 Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science. (2010), Brandeis University
Articles
July/August 2011
Innate immunity pioneer receives international prize
Ruslan M. Medzhitov, Ph.D., the David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology, is one of three scientists awarded the...
July/August 2010
Innate immunity innovator joins National Academy
In April, Yale immunobiologist Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D., received one of the highest honors bestowed on American...
Jan/Feb 2010
Autoimmunity: research on many fronts
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)IBD is a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine that...
Jan/Feb 2010
Pioneer in studies of innate immunity wins Rosenstiel Award
Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D., the David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute...
December 2010
Medical school’s mentors ‘pay it forward’
Though few of the hundreds of busy people who pass through the doors of Sterling Hall of Medicine each day notice the...
Aug/Sept 2005
Taking a toll on parasitic infections
In 1997, a blockbuster article by two Yale scientists, the late Charles A. Janeway Jr., M.D., and Ruslan M. Medzhitov,...
Medicine@Yale, the bimonthly newsletter of Yale School of Medicine (YSM), chronicles achievements
of YSM in basic and clinical research, medical education, and health care. Read More...
