John A. Blaho PhD

John A. Blaho, Ph.D. has over 25 years experience as a successful and well-funded professor at the University of Chicago and in the Department of Microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is recognized internationally for his research on human viruses and was appointed to the Doctoral Faculty of the City University of New York in 1995. Dr. Blaho was trained as a Chemical Engineer and performed NSF-supported research on biomass conversion. His graduate research on nucleic acid biochemistry utilized large scale (500 liter) microbial fermentation of recombinant organisms, a process which served as the nadir of the blossoming biotechnology industry. Prior to joining CUNY, Dr. Blaho served a full time CSO function at a Biotech company in Princeton, NJ. In this Executive Industrial position, he was also responsible for expanding the business through development of key partnerships and creating new investment opportunities. During his tenure in the Biotech sector, Dr. Blaho held a Full Member (Professor) position at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, was a Visiting Scholar in Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and he remains an Adjunct Full Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Dr. Blaho serves as the CUNY Director for Industrial-Academic Research within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. He has been responsible for creating/maintaining productive Sponsored Research Projects between Industrial entities and CUNY research faculty and is currently working to increase the amount of faculty entrepreneurial activities. Dr. Blaho has worked very closely with the university’s traditional entrepreneurial center, the CUNY Center for Advanced Technology (CUNY CAT) serving as its Director for University-Industry Collaborations and continues to function as its Liaison to CUNY for Entrepreneurship