Valery Krizhanovsky

Valery Krizhanovsky discovered that the immune system actively surveys and eliminates senescent cells through NK cell and macrophage-mediated clearance, establishing immune surveillance of senescence as a tumor-suppressive mechanism. His work demonstrated that failure of senescent cell clearance in the liver leads to fibrosis progression and hepatocellular carcinoma development. He showed that SASP factors serve dual roles as both immune-attracting signals for senescent cell clearance and protumorigenic paracrine factors when clearance fails. His research has defined the immunological mechanisms governing the balance between senescence as tumor suppressor and tumor promoter.