George Blanck, Ph.D.

Contact Info

• 12901 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
  MDC 7
  Tampa FL 33612
• Academic Email: gblanck@usf.edu
• Academic Phone: (813) 974-9585
• View My C.V.

Education

Interdisciplinary and Emerging Signature Programs

• Allergy, Immunology & Infectious Disease
• Cancer Biology
• Other

Research Interests

• medical genomics and bioinformatics, immunogenomics

Recent Publications

• Arndt MF, Koohestani DM, Chobrutskiy BI, Mihyu MM, Diaz M, Gozlan EC, Yeagley M, Zaman S, Roca AM, Blanck G. TRBV and TRBJ usage, when paired with specific HLA alleles, associates with distinct head and neck cancer survival rates. Human immunology. 81(12) : 692-696, 2020.
• Tu YN, Tong WL, Callahan BM, Chobrutskiy BI, Blanck G. B-cell Receptor Recombinations in Lung Adenocarcinoma Exome Files Correlate With a Higher Overall Survival Rate. Anticancer research. 40(4) : 2043-2051, 2020.
• Arturo JF, Chobrutskiy BI, Yeagley M, Patel DN, Falasiri S, Patel JS, Blanck G. Electrostatic complementarity of B-cell receptor CDR3s and TP53-mutant amino acids in breast cancer is associated with increased disease-free survival rates. Cellular & molecular immunology. 17(7) : 776-778, 2020.
• Chobrutskiy A, Chobrutskiy BI, Zaman S, Hsiang M, Blanck G. Chemical features of blood-borne TRG CDR3s associated with an increased overall survival in breast cancer. Breast cancer research and treatment. , 2020.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Patel JS, Diviney A, Tu YN, Tong WL, Gill T, Blanck G. Antiviral T Cell Receptor Complementarity Determining Region-3 Sequences Are Associated with a Worse Cancer Outcome: A Pancancer Analysis. Viral immunology. 33(5) : 404-412, 2020.
• Chobrutskiy BI, Yeagley M, Tipping P, Zaman S, Diviney A, Patel DN, Falasiri S, Uversky VN, Blanck G. Chemical complementarity between immune receptor CDR3s and IDH1 mutants correlates with increased survival for lower grade glioma. Oncogene. 39(8) : 1773-1783, 2020.
• Diaz MJ, Chobrutskiy BI, Zaman S, Blanck G. Immunogenomics of colorectal adenocarcinoma: Survival distinctions represented by immune receptor, CDR3 chemical features and high expression of BTN gene family members. Cancer treatment and research communications. 24: 100196, 2020.
• Chobrutskiy BI, Yeagley M, Diviney A, Zaman S, Gozlan EC, Tipping P, Koohestani DM, Roca AM, Blanck G. A scoring system for the electrostatic complementarities of T-cell receptors and cancer-mutant amino acids: multi-cancer analyses of associated survival rates. Immunology. 159(4) : 373-383, 2020.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Sikaria D, Blanck G. MAPT (Tau) expression is a biomarker for an increased rate of survival for low‑grade glioma. Oncology reports. 41(2) : 1359-1366, 2019.
• Clark KR, Tong WL, Callahan BM, Yavorski JM, Tu YN, Blanck G. TRB-J1 usage, in combination with the HLA-A*01:01 allele, represents an apparent survival advantage for uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma: Comparisons with microscopic assessments of lymphocyte infiltrates. International journal of immunogenetics. 46(1) : 31-37, 2019.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Patel JS, Callahan BM, Tong WL, Mihyu MM, Blanck G. MMP7 sensitivity of mutant ECM proteins: An indicator of melanoma survival rates and T-cell infiltration. Clinical biochemistry. 63: 85-91, 2019.
• Tong WL, Callahan BM, Tu YN, Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Blanck G. Immune receptor recombinations from breast cancer exome files, independently and in combination with specific HLA alleles, correlate with better survival rates. Breast cancer research and treatment. 173(1) : 167-177, 2019.
• Pakasticali N, Gill T, Chobrutskiy BI, Tong WL, Ramsamooj M, Blanck G. TRAV gene segments further away from the TRAJ gene segment cluster appear more commonly in human tumor and blood samples. Molecular immunology. 116: 174-179, 2019.
• Roca AM, Chobrutskiy BI, Callahan BM, Blanck G. T-cell receptor V and J usage paired with specific HLA alleles associates with distinct cervical cancer survival rates. Human immunology. 80(4) : 237-242, 2019.
• Patel JS, Callahan BM, Chobrutskiy BI, Blanck G. Matrix-Metalloprotease Resistant Mucin-16 (MUC16) Peptide Mutants Represent a Worse Lung Adenocarcinoma Outcome. Proteomics. Clinical applications. : e1800155, 2019.
• Chobrutskiy BI, Zaman S, Diviney A, Mihyu MM, Blanck G. T-cell receptor-α CDR3 domain chemical features correlate with survival rates in bladder cancer. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology. 145(3) : 615-623, 2019.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Patel JS, Callahan BM, Mihyu MM, Diviney A, Blanck G. Potential MMP2-mediated availability of HLA binding, mutant ECM peptides reflects better melanoma survival rates and greater T-cell infiltrates. Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology. 99(9) : 1287-1295, 2019.
• Diviney A, Chobrutskiy BI, Zaman S, Blanck G. An age-based, RNA expression paradigm for survival biomarker identification for pediatric neuroblastoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer cell international. 19: 73, 2019.
• Blanck G. Mutations and regulatory anomalies effecting tumor cell immune functions. Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII. 53(1) : 1-16, 2004.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Blanck G. MAPT (Tau) expression is a biomarker for an increased rate of survival in pediatric neuroblastoma. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.). 17(21-22) : 2474-2483, 2018.
• Chobrutskiy BI, Zaman S, Tong WL, Diviney A, Blanck G. Recovery of T-cell receptor V(D)J recombination reads from lower grade glioma exome files correlates with reduced survival and advanced cancer grade. Journal of neuro-oncology. 140(3) : 697-704, 2018.
• Fisler DA, Sikaria D, Yavorski JM, Tu YN, Blanck G. Elucidating feed-forward apoptosis signatures in breast cancer datasets: Higher FOS expression associated with a better outcome. Oncology letters. 16(2) : 2757-2763, 2018.
• Osborne AR, Zhang H, Fejer G, Palubin KM, Niesen MI, Blanck G. Oct-1 maintains an intermediate, stable state of HLA-DRA promoter repression in Rb-defective cells: an Oct-1-containing repressosome that prevents NF-Y binding to the HLA-DRA promoter. The Journal of biological chemistry. 279(28) : 28911-9, 2004.
• Zaman S, Chobrutskiy BI, Patel JS, Callahan BM, Tong WL, Blanck G. Mutant cytoskeletal and ECM peptides sensitive to the ST14 protease are associated with a worse outcome for glioblastoma multiforme. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 503(4) : 2218-2225, 2018.
• Falasiri S, Rahman T, Tu YN, Fawcett TJ, Blanck G. Germline cytoskeletal and extra-cellular matrix-related single nucleotide variations associated with distinct cancer survival rates. Gene. 669: 91-98, 2018.
• Xi H, Blanck G. The IRF-2 DNA binding domain facilitates the activation of the class II transactivator (CIITA) type IV promoter by IRF-1. Molecular immunology. 39(11) : 677-84, 2003.
• Sikaria D, Tu YN, Fisler DA, Mauro JA, Blanck G. Identification of specific feed-forward apoptosis mechanisms and associated higher survival rates for low grade glioma and lung squamous cell carcinoma. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology. , 2018.
• Eason DD, LeBron C, Coppola D, Moscinski LC, Livingston S, Sutton ET, Blanck G. Development of CD30+ lymphoproliferative disease in mice lacking interferon regulatory factor-1. Oncogene. 22(40) : 6166-76, 2003.
• Callahan BM, Patel JS, Fawcett TJ, Blanck G. Cytoskeleton and ECM tumor mutant peptides: Increased protease sensitivities and potential consequences for the HLA class I mutant epitope reservoir. International journal of cancer. 142(5) : 988-998, 2018.
• Tu YN, Tong WL, Yavorski JM, Blanck G. Immunogenomics: A Negative Prostate Cancer Outcome Associated with TcR-γ/δ Recombinations. Cancer microenvironment : official journal of the International Cancer Microenvironment Society. , 2018.
• Blanck G. Components of the IFN-gamma signaling pathway in tumorigenesis. Archivum immunologiae et therapiae experimentalis. 50(3) : 151-8, 2002.
• Mai AT, Tong WL, Tu YN, Blanck G. T-cell receptor-α recombinations in renal cell carcinoma exome files correlate with an intermediate level of T-cell exhaustion biomarkers. International immunology. , 2018.
• Eason DD, Blanck G. High level class II trans-activator induction does not occur with transient activation of the IFN-gamma signaling pathway. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 166(2) : 1041-8, 2001.
• Stoll RJ, Thompson GR, Samy MD, Blanck G. De novo, systemic, deleterious amino acid substitutions are common in large cytoskeleton-related protein coding regions. Biomedical reports. 6(2) : 211-216, 2017.
• Goodwin BL, Xi H, Tejiram R, Eason DD, Ghosh N, Wright KL, Nagarajan U, Boss JM, Blanck G. Varying functions of specific major histocompatibility class II transactivator promoter III and IV elements in melanoma cell lines. Cell growth & differentiation : the molecular biology journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. 12(6) : 327-35, 2001.
• Yavorski JM, Stoll RJ, Samy MD, Mauro JA, Blanck G. Identification of Sets of Cytoskeletal Related and Adhesion-related Coding Region Mutations in the TCGA Melanoma Dataset that Correlate with a Negative Outcome. Current genomics. 18(3) : 287-297, 2017.
• Osborne A, Zhang H, Yang WM, Seto E, Blanck G. Histone deacetylase activity represses gamma interferon-inducible HLA-DR gene expression following the establishment of a DNase I-hypersensitive chromatin conformation. Molecular and cellular biology. 21(19) : 6495-506, 2001.
• Segarra DT, Yavorski JM, Blanck G. Protected cytoskeletal-related proteins: Towards a resolution of contradictions regarding the role of the cytoskeleton in cancer. Biomedical reports. 7(2) : 163-168, 2017.
• Eason DD, Coppola D, Livingston S, Shepherd AT, Blanck G. Loss of MHC class II inducibility in hyperplastic tissue in Rb-defective mice. Cancer letters. 171(2) : 209-14, 2001.
• Tu YN, Tong WL, Fawcett TJ, Blanck G. Lung tumor exome files with T-cell receptor recombinations: a mouse model of T-cell infiltrates reflecting mutation burdens. Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology. , 2017.
• Xi H, Goodwin B, Shepherd AT, Blanck G. Impaired class II transactivator expression in mice lacking interferon regulatory factor-2. Oncogene. 20(31) : 4219-27, 2001.
• Samy MD, Tong WL, Yavorski JM, Sexton WJ, Blanck G. T cell receptor gene recombinations in human tumor specimen exome files: detection of T cell receptor-β VDJ recombinations associates with a favorable oncologic outcome for bladder cancer. Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII. 66(3) : 403-410, 2017.
• Zhang H, Wei S, Sun J, Coppola D, Zhong B, Wu GD, Goodwin B, Sebti S, Djeu JY, Blanck G. Retinoblastoma protein activation of interleukin 8 expression inhibits tumor cell survival in nude mice. Cell growth & differentiation : the molecular biology journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. 11(12) : 635-9, 2000.
• Tong WL, Tu YN, Samy MD, Sexton WJ, Blanck G. Identification of immunoglobulin V(D)J recombinations in solid tumor specimen exome files: Evidence for high level B-cell infiltrates in breast cancer. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics. 13(3) : 501-506, 2017.
• Xi H, Blanck G. Interferon regulatory factor-2 point mutations in human pancreatic tumors. International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer. 87(6) : 803-8, 2000.
• Tu YN, Tong WL, Samy MD, Yavorski JM, Kim M, Blanck G. Assessing microenvironment immunogenicity using tumor specimen exomes: Co-detection of TcR-α/β V(D)J recombinations correlates with PD-1 expression. International journal of cancer. , 2017.
• Mauro JA, Yavorski JM, Blanck G. Stratifying melanoma and breast cancer TCGA datasets on the basis of the CNV of transcription factor binding sites common to proliferation- and apoptosis-effector genes. Gene. , 2017.
• Eason DD, Shepherd AT, Blanck G. Interferon regulatory factor 1 tryptophan 11 to arginine point mutation abolishes DNA binding. Biochimica et biophysica acta. 1446(1-2) : 140-4, 1999.
• Uversky VN, Tu YN, Nwogu O, Butler SN, Ramsamooj M, Blanck G. High-level intrinsic disorder explains the universality of CLIP binding to diverse MHC class II variants. Cellular & molecular immunology. , 2017.
• Blanck G. HLA class II expression in human tumor lines. Microbes and infection / Institut Pasteur. 1(11) : 913-8, 1999.
• Clark NM, Garcia Galindo CA, Patel VK, Parry ML, Stoll RJ, Yavorski JM, Pinkason EP, Johnson EM, Walker CM, Johnson J, Sexton WJ, Coppola D, Blanck G. The human, F-actin-based cytoskeleton as a mutagen sensor. Cancer cell international. 17: 1119-1121, 2017.
• Yavorski JM, Blanck G. MHC class II associated stomach cancer mutations correlate with lack of subsequent tumor development. Molecular and clinical oncology. 7(6) : 1119-1121, 2017.
• Yavorski JM, Blanck G. TCGA: Increased oncoprotein coding region mutations correlate with a greater expression of apoptosis-effector genes and a positive outcome for stomach adenocarcinoma. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.). 15(16) : 2157-2163, 2016.
• Xi H, Eason DD, Ghosh D, Dovhey S, Wright KL, Blanck G. Co-occupancy of the interferon regulatory element of the class II transactivator (CIITA) type IV promoter by interferon regulatory factors 1 and 2. Oncogene. 18(43) : 5889-903, 1999.
• Samy MD, Yavorski JM, Mauro JA, Blanck G. Impact of SNPs on CpG Islands in the MYC and HRAS oncogenes and in a wide variety of tumor suppressor genes: A multi-cancer approach. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.). 15(12) : 1572-8, 2016.
• Osborne A, Tschickardt M, Blanck G. Retinoblastoma protein expression facilitates chromatin remodeling at the HLA-DRA promoter. Nucleic acids research. 25(24) : 5095-102, 1997.
• Gill TR, Samy MD, Butler SN, Mauro JA, Sexton WJ, Blanck G. Detection of Productively Rearranged TcR-α V-J Sequences in TCGA Exome Files: Implications for Tumor Immunoscoring and Recovery of Antitumor T-cells. Cancer informatics. 15: 23-8, 2016.
• Lu Y, Tschickardt ME, Schmidt BJ, Blanck G. IFN-gamma inducibility of class II transactivator is specifically lacking in human tumour lines: relevance to retinoblastoma protein rescue of IFN-gamma inducibility of the HLA class II genes. Immunology and cell biology. 75(4) : 325-32, 1997.
• Yavorski JM, Blanck G. Smoking correlates with increased cytoskeletal protein-related coding region mutations in the lung and head and neck datasets of the cancer genome atlas. Physiological reports. 4(24) , 2016.
• Lu Y, Boss JM, Hu SX, Xu HJ, Blanck G. Apoptosis-independent retinoblastoma protein rescue of HLA class II messenger RNA IFN-gamma inducibility in non-small cell lung carcinoma cells. Lack of surface class II expression associated with a specific defect in HLA-DRA induction. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 156(7) : 2495-502, 1996.
• Blazekovic F, Odukoya D, Butler SN, Mauro JA, Ramsamooj M, Puleo E, Szekeres K, Dana D, Kumar S, Ragupathi G, Blanck G. HLA-DR peptide occupancy can be regulated with a wide variety of small molecules. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics. 12(3) : 593-8, 2016.
• Schmidt B, Carter SS, Berry DE, Blanck G. Vitamin D3 reduces the apoptotic effect of IFN-gamma but does not facilitate HLA class II inducibility in RB-defective cells. Cancer letters. 110(1-2) : 169-76, 1996.
• Butler SN, Blanck G. Immunoscoring by correlating MHC class II and TCR expression: high level immune functions represented by the KIRP dataset of TCGA. Cell and tissue research. 363(2) : 491-6, 2016.
• Parry ML, Blanck G. Flat cells come full sphere: Are mutant cytoskeletal-related proteins oncoprotein-monsters or useful immunogens? Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 12(1) : 120-3, 2016.
• Berry DE, Lu Y, Schmidt B, Fallon PG, O''Connell C, Hu SX, Xu HJ, Blanck G. Retinoblastoma protein inhibits IFN-gamma induced apoptosis. Oncogene. 12(8) : 1809-19, 1996.
• Sait S, Fawcett T, Blanck G. Overlap of the cancer genome atlas and the immune epitope database. Oncology letters. 12(4) : 2982-2984, 2016.
• Tschickardt ME, Lu Y, Jacim M, Ussery GD, Steimle V, Mach B, Blanck G. RB and a novel E2F-1 binding protein in MHC class II deficient B-cell lines and normal IFN-gamma induction of the class IL transactivator CIITA in class II non-inducible RB-defective tumor lines. International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer. 62(4) : 461-5, 1995.
• Lloyd MC, Szekeres K, Brown JS, Blanck G. Class II Transactivator Expression in Melanoma Cells Facilitates T-cell Engulfment. Anticancer Research. 35(1) : 25-9, 2015.
• Garcia M, Mauro JA, Ramsamooj M, Blanck G. Tumor suppressor genes are larger than apoptosis-effector genes and have more regions of active chromatin: Connection to a stochastic paradigm for sequential gene expression programs. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.). 14(15) : 2494-500, 2015.
• Lu Y, Ussery GD, Jacim M, Tschickardt M, Boss JM, Blanck G. Retinoblastoma protein regulation of surface CD74 (invariant chain) expression in breast carcinoma cells. Molecular immunology. 31(17) : 1365-8, 1994.
• Parry ML, Ramsamooj M, Blanck G. Big genes are big mutagen targets: a connection to cancerous, spherical cells? Cancer letters. 356(2 Pt B) : 479-82, 2015.
• Lu Y, Ussery GD, Muncaster MM, Gallie BL, Blanck G. Evidence for retinoblastoma protein (RB) dependent and independent IFN-gamma responses: RB coordinately rescues IFN-gamma induction of MHC class II gene transcription in noninducible breast carcinoma cells. Oncogene. 9(4) : 1015-9, 1994.
• Fawcett TJ, Parry ML, Blanck G. A Novel Approach to Evaluating Cancer Driver Gene Mutation Densities: Cytoskeleton-related Gene Candidates. Cancer genomics & proteomics. 12(6) : 283-90, 2015.
• Blanck G, Strominger JL. Cosmid clones in the HLA-DZ and -DP subregions. Human immunology. 27(3) : 265-8, 1990.
• Blanck G. Letter to the Editor: Giant proteins and cancer chemotherapy cardiotoxicity. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. 309(4) : H718, 2015.
• Frangione ML, Lockhart JH, Morton DT, Pava LM, Blanck G. Anticipating designer drug-resistant cancer cells. Drug Discovery Today. 20(7) : 790-3, 2015.
• Blanck G, Lok M, Kok K, Downie E, Korn JH, Strominger JL. Gamma-interferon induction of HLA class II mRNAs in dermal fibroblasts studied by RNAse protection analysis. Human immunology. 29(2) : 150-6, 1990.
• Spies T, Bresnahan M, Bahram S, Arnold D, Blanck G, Mellins E, Pious D, DeMars R. A gene in the human major histocompatibility complex class II region controlling the class I antigen presentation pathway. Nature. 348(6303) : 744-7, 1990.
• Ford SA, Blanck G. Signal persistence and amplification in cancer development and possible, related opportunities for novel therapies. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 1855(1) : 18-23, 2015.
• Spies T, Blanck G, Bresnahan M, Sands J, Strominger JL. A new cluster of genes within the human major histocompatibility complex. Science (New York, N.Y.). 243(4888) : 214-7, 1989.
• Lloyd MC, Burke N, Kalantarpour F, Niesen MI, Hall A, Pennypacker K, Citron B, Pick CG, Adams V, Das M, Mohapatra S, Cualing H, Blanck G. QUANTITATIVE MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY OF THE HUMAN THYMUS CORRELATE WITH INFANT CAUSE OF DEATH. Technology and Innovation. 16(1) : 55-62, 2014.
• Blanck G, Li D, Pomert E, Pollack R, Chen S. Multiple insertions and tandem repeats of origin-minus simian virus 40 DNA in transformed rat and mouse cells. Journal of virology. 62(5) : 1520-3, 1988.
• Blanck G. The Rise of the Biomedical Sciences Master''s Program at U.S. Medical Colleges. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 26(4) : 409-11, 2014.
• Blanck G. The future of cancer research: prevention, screening, vaccines, and tumor-specific drug combos. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 10(3) : 700-2, 2014.
• Blanck G, Strominger JL. Molecular organization of the DQ subregion (DO-DX-DV-DQ) of the human MHC and its evolutionary implications. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 141(5) : 1734-7, 1988.
• Szekeres K, Koul R, Mauro J, Lloyd M, Johnson J, Blanck G. An Oct-1-based, feed-forward mechanism of apoptosis inhibited by co-culture with Raji B-cells: Towards a model of the cancer cell/B-cell microenvironment. Experimental and Molecular Pathology. , 2014.
• Levitt A, Chen S, Blanck G, George D, Pollack RE. Two integrated partial repeats of simian virus 40 together code for a super-T antigen. Molecular and cellular biology. 5(4) : 742-50, 1985.
• Mauro JA, Butler S, Ramsamooj M, Blanck G. Copy number loss or silencing of apoptosis-effector genes in cancer. Gene. , 2014.
• Cronin K, Escobar H, Szekeres K, Reyes-Vargas E, Rockwood AL, Lloyd MC, Delgado JC, Blanck G. Regulation of HLA-DR peptide occupancy by histone deacetylase inhibitors. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. 9(4) , 2013.
• Mauro JA, Blanck G. Functionally distinct gene classes as bigger or smaller transcription factor traps: A possible stochastic component to sequential gene expression programs in cancer. Gene. , 2013.
• Pillai S, Szekeres K, Lawrence NJ, Chellappan SP, Blanck G. Regulation of interlocking gene regulatory network subcircuits by a small molecule inhibitor of retinoblastoma protein (RB) phosphorylation: Cancer cell expression of HLA-DR. Gene. , 2012.
• Pava LM, Morton DT, Chen R, Blanck G. Unifying the Genomics-based Classes of Cancer Fusion Gene Partners: Large Cancer Fusion Genes Are Evolutionarily Conserved. Cancer Genomics & Proteomics. 9(6) : 389-95, 2012.
• Long K, Abuelenen T, Pava L, Bastille M, Blanck G. Size matters: sequential mutations in tumorigenesis may reflect the stochastic effect of mutagen target sizes. Genes & Cancer. 2(10) : 927-31, 2011.
• Narsing S, Jelsovsky Z, Mbah A, Blanck G. Genes that contribute to cancer fusion genes are large and evolutionarily conserved. Cancer genetics and cytogenetics. 191(2) : 78-84, 2009.
• Coppola D, Parikh V, Boulware D, Blanck G. Substantially reduced expression of PIAS1 is associated with colon cancer development. Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology. , 2009.
• Mohapatra S, Park SJ, Boyapalle S, Pastey MK, Graham BS, Blanck G. Human respiratory syncytial virus reduces the number of cells in S-phase and increases GADD153 expression in HEp-2 cells. Acta Virologica. 53(3) : 207-11, 2009.
• Xu L, Niesen MI, Blanck G. Linkage of a tumor immune function and cell cycle de-regulation via a gene regulatory network subcircuit. Molecular Immunology. 46(4) : 569-75, 2009.
• Kazemfar K, Chen R, Nicholson K, Coppola D, Zhou JM, Chen X, Wei S, Blanck G. Combined IL-8 and TGF-beta blockade efficiently prevents neutrophil infiltrates into an A549-cell tumor. Immunology letters. 122(1) : 26-9, 2009.
• Niesen MI, Blanck G. Rescue of major histocompatibility-DR surface expression in retinoblastoma-defective, non-small cell lung carcinoma cells by the MS-275 histone deacetylase inhibitor. Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin. 32(3) : 480-2, 2009.
• Niesen MI, Osborne AR, Lagor WR, Zhang H, Kazemfar K, Ness GC, Blanck G. Technological advances in the study of HLA-DRA promoter regulation: extending the functions of CIITA, Oct-1, Rb, and RFX. Acta Biochimica et Biophysica Sinica. 41(3) : 198-205, 2009.
• Spies T, Bresnahan M, Bahram S, Arnold D, Blanck G, Mellins E, Pious D, Demars R. Pillars Article: A Gene in the Human Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Region Controlling the Class I Antigen Presentation Pathway. Nature 1990. 348: 744-747. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 180(5) : 2737-40, 2008.
• Le E, Zhang H, Blanck G. CIITA transformation rescues the apoptotic function of MHC class II in melanoma cells. Anticancer research. 25(6B) : 3889-92, 2006.
• Osborne AR, Zhang H, Blanck G. Oct-1 DNA binding activity unresponsive to retinoblastoma protein expression prevents MHC class II induction in a non-small cell lung carcinoma cell line. Molecular immunology. 43(6) : 710-6, 2006.
• Palubin KM, Goodwin BL, Niesen MI, Le EA, Osborne AR, Blanck G. A direct mechanistic link between growth control and a tumor cell immune function: increased interleukin-8 secretion accounts for elimination of Oct-1 antisense transformants from scid mice. Anticancer research. 26(3A) : 1733-8, 2006.
• Niesen MI, Osborne AR, Yang H, Rastogi S, Chellappan S, Cheng JQ, Boss JM, Blanck G. Activation of a methylated promoter mediated by a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein, RFX. The Journal of biological chemistry. 280(47) : 38914-22, 2005.

Positions Held

• Associate Professor (Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of South Florida 1995 - 2002)
• Assistant Professor (Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, University of South Florida 1990 - 1995)