I graduated from the Leningrad (now St.-Petersburg) State University, USSR (now Russia) in 1984 with a Master in Science degree. In the Russian Academic system it is typical to work for several years between finishing university and starting a Ph.D. program. After the University I was invited to join the staff of the Russian Cell Culture Collection, operated in the Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Science. In 1988 I started my graduate school in the Laboratory of Cell Cycle Physiology of the Institute of Cytology. During my time in graduate school I was involved in several collaborative projects outside of Russia. In 1991 I worked for 6 in the laboratory of Dr. Guillouzo in Rennes, France. In 1992 I worked at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, under supervision of Dr. Boonstra. I graduated in 1993 and started my first postdoctoral training at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany, 1995 – 1997) with Dr. Griffiths. Upon coming to the U.S.A., I first joined the laboratory of Dr. Swanson at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1997-1999) and the laboratory of Dr. Carter-Su (1999-2002) after that. I was promoted to the Assistant Research Professor position at the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, in 2002, where I started my own lab.

In 2006 I was invited to the Biological Science Department of the University of Toledo as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2012. Since 2006 I have published 16 papers in reputable journals on a role of hormones prolactin and estrogen in breast cancer progression, and served as the main editor of “Recent Advances in Prolactin Research” book (Springer, 2015). In addition to research, I have acquired extensive teaching experience at undergraduate and graduate levels. I have taught undergraduate courses, “Biological Literature and Communication – WAC” (BIOL 4700) and “Human Physiology” (BIOL 3070). I have also taught a graduate course, “Advanced Cell Biology” (BIOL 6090/8090).  In addition to my classroom teaching, I have served as a major professor for 4 Ph.D. students (3 of whom were undergraduate students in my lab) and 3 Master students to degree completion.