Dukagjin Blakaj, MD, PhD

Dukagjin M. Blakaj M.D., Ph.D. a Professor, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations, H&N/Skull base Division Director in the Radiation Oncology department at The Ohio State University (OSU). He leads a busy clinical practice in H&N, skin, skull base and spine malignancies and also leads the Spine division. He is also the H&N-Intraoperative and CNS/Pediatric fellowship director within the radiation oncology department. Dr. Blakaj earned his bachelors and master’s in molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Chemistry from Wesleyan University (1999 and 2000); Biochemistry M.S (2004), Biochemistry Ph.D. (2008) and MD (2008) from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is on national committees for H&N/skin cancer clinical trials including NCI, ECOG and NRG. His Ph.D. thesis centered on the molecular, biochemical, biophysical, immune and cellular research exploring protein-ligand interactions based on the papillomavirus transcription factor, E2. At OSU, his research interests continue to be clinical and translational in nature with his goal being to tailor cancer treatments to patients based on their molecular profiles of treatment resistance and conduct research that will ultimately lead to novel clinical trials, especially in identifying molecular biomarkers for overall treatment response and immunotherapy response in H&N/Skull Base cancers. He is a PI on a multi–PI H&N Immunotherapy and IORT clinical trial as well as a prospective spine stereotactic radiosurgery clinical trial. He has been published in over one hundred and twenty research articles and has received over five million dollars in both industry and institutional funding since joining OSU in 2013.

Disclosures:

• Employment: IntraOp:Research Grant for Clinical Trial:Other
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• Ownership: none
• Leadership: none