PhD, DSc, Head of the Laboratory of Carcinogenic Substances of the Institute of Carcinogenesis of the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology.

Kirsanov K.I. studied the spectrum of biological activity of small DNA-binding molecules. In these works, the existence of compounds capable to induce the appearance of somatic transformed clones via homologous recombination was demonstrated. Another research area of Kirsanov K.I. focused on the study of the molecular mechanisms of the antitumor drug curaxin, belonging to the class of chromatin remodelers. Together with the laboratories of A. Gudkov and K. Gurova (Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, USA) Kirsanov K.I. and the collaborators showed anticarcinogenic effect of curaxin on a model of chemically induced carcinogenesis in vivo and proved that one of the molecular mechanisms of action of this drug is inhibition of WNT signaling. This study revealed the possibility of using curaxin for chemoprevention of cancer. He has studied the molecular mechanisms of selective glucocorticoid receptor agonist CpdA which allowed to develop several proposals on improvement of glucocorticoid therapy to reduce its side effects.

Kirsanov K.I. has authored more than 150 articles in Russian and international scientific journals.