Roberto Polakiewicz, Chief Scientific Officer

Executive & Research Teams

Roberto Polakiewicz

Chief Scientific Officer
Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dr. Polakiewicz has been responsible for Product and Technology Development at Cell Signaling Technology (CST) for the past 7 years. His leadership and direction have created the company’s most valuable intellectual property assets. Dr. Polakiewicz has driven the successful implementation of four generations of novel antibody platform technologies that have been critical to the success of CST. His most recent development, NG-XMT™, an immensely promising technology, holds the potential to launch CST into the field of therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Polakiewicz's research interests span different fields including molecular and cell biology, signal transduction, and cancer. During his 25 years of experience in Research and Technology development, Dr. Polakiewicz has published around 60 peer-reviewed publications, and is an inventor on numerous patents and patent applications. Dr. Polakiewicz received his B.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at M.I.T.

Selected Publications

Cheung WC, Beausoleil SA, Zhang X, Sato S, Schieferl SM, Wieler JS, Beaudet JG, Ramenani RK, Popova L, Comb MJ, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD (2012) A proteomics approach for the identification and cloning of monoclonal antibodies from serum. Nat. Biotechnol. 30(5), 447–52.
Gu TL, Nardone J, Wang Y, Loriaux M, Villén J, Beausoleil S, Tucker M, Kornhauser J, Ren J, MacNeill J, Gygi SP, Druker BJ, Heinrich MC, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD (2011) Survey of activated FLT3 signaling in leukemia. PLoS ONE 6(4), e19169.
Fan J, Hitosugi T, Chung TW, Xie J, Ge Q, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Chen GZ, Boggon TJ, Lonial S, Khuri FR, Kang S, Chen J (2011) Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Lactate Dehydrogenase A Is Important for NADH/NAD+ Redox Homeostasis in Cancer Cells. Mol. Cell. Biol. 31(24), 4938-50
Hitosugi T, Fan J, Chung TW, Lythgoe K, Wang X, Xie J, Ge Q, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Roesel JL, Chen GZ, Boggon TJ, Lonial S, Fu H, Khuri FR, Kang S, Chen J (2011) Tyrosine phosphorylation of mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 is important for cancer metabolism. Mol. Cell 44(6), 864-77
Gu TL, Cherry J, Tucker M, Wu J, Reeves C, Polakiewicz RD (2010) Identification of activated Tnk1 kinase in Hodgkin's lymphoma. Leukemia 24(4), 861-5.
Pecquet C, Staerk J, Chaligné R, Goss V, Lee KA, Zhang X, Rush J, Van Hees J, Poirel HA, Scheiff JM, Vainchenker W, Giraudier S, Polakiewicz RD, Constantinescu SN (2010) Induction of myeloproliferative disorder and myelofibrosis by thrombopoietin receptor W515 mutants is mediated by cytosolic tyrosine 112 of the receptor. Blood 115(5), 1037-48.
Kang S, Elf S, Lythgoe K, Hitosugi T, Taunton J, Zhou W, Xiong L, Wang D, Muller S, Fan S, Sun SY, Marcus AI, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Chen ZG, Khuri FR, Shin DM, Chen J (2010) p90 ribosomal S6 kinase 2 promotes invasion and metastasis of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells. J. Clin. Invest. 120(4), 1165-77.
Hitosugi T, Kang S, Vander Heiden MG, Chung TW, Elf S, Lythgoe K, Dong S, Lonial S, Wang X, Chen GZ, Xie J, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Roesel JL, Boggon TJ, Khuri FR, Gilliland DG, Cantley LC, Kaufman J, Chen J (2009) Tyrosine phosphorylation inhibits PKM2 to promote the Warburg effect and tumor growth. Sci Signal 2(97), ra73.
Boccalatte FE, Voena C, Riganti C, Bosia A, D'Amico L, Riera L, Cheng M, Ruggeri B, Jensen ON, Goss VL, Lee K, Nardone J, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ, Chiarle R, Inghirami G (2009) The enzymatic activity of 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase/IMP cyclohydrolase is enhanced by NPM-ALK: new insights in ALK-mediated pathogenesis and the treatment of ALCL. Blood 113(12), 2776-90.
Yu J, Kane S, Wu J, Benedettini E, Li D, Reeves C, Innocenti G, Wetzel R, Crosby K, Becker A, Ferrante M, Cheung WC, Hong X, Chirieac LR, Sholl LM, Haack H, Smith BL, Polakiewicz RD, Tan Y, Gu TL, Loda M, Zhou X, Comb MJ (2009) Mutation-specific antibodies for the detection of EGFR mutations in non-small-cell lung cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 15(9), 3023-8.
Haack H, Johnson LA, Fry CJ, Crosby K, Polakiewicz RD, Stelow EB, Hong SM, Schwartz BE, Cameron MJ, Rubin MA, Chang MC, Aster JC, French CA (2009) Diagnosis of NUT midline carcinoma using a NUT-specific monoclonal antibody. Am. J. Surg. Pathol. 33(7), 984-91.
Guo A, Villén J, Kornhauser J, Lee KA, Stokes MP, Rikova K, Possemato A, Nardone J, Innocenti G, Wetzel R, Wang Y, MacNeill J, Mitchell J, Gygi SP, Rush J, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2008) Signaling networks assembled by oncogenic EGFR and c-Met. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105(2), 692-7.
Li Y, Zhang X, Polakiewicz RD, Yao TP, Comb MJ (2008) HDAC6 is required for epidermal growth factor-induced beta-catenin nuclear localization. J. Biol. Chem. 283(19), 12686-90.
Stokes MP, Rush J, Macneill J, Ren JM, Sprott K, Nardone J, Yang V, Beausoleil SA, Gygi SP, Livingstone M, Zhang H, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2007) Profiling of UV-induced ATM/ATR signaling pathways. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104(50), 19855-60.
Gu TL, Popova L, Reeves C, Nardone J, Macneill J, Rush J, Nimer SD, Polakiewicz RD (2007) Phosphoproteomic analysis identifies the M0-91 cell line as a cellular model for the study of TEL-TRKC fusion-associated leukemia. Leukemia 21(3), 563-6.
Gu TL, Mercher T, Tyner JW, Goss VL, Walters DK, Cornejo MG, Reeves C, Popova L, Lee K, Heinrich MC, Rush J, Daibata M, Miyoshi I, Gilliland DG, Druker BJ, Polakiewicz RD (2007) A novel fusion of RBM6 to CSF1R in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Blood 110(1), 323-33.
Kang S, Dong S, Gu TL, Guo A, Cohen MS, Lonial S, Khoury HJ, Fabbro D, Gilliland DG, Bergsagel PL, Taunton J, Polakiewicz RD, Chen J (2007) FGFR3 activates RSK2 to mediate hematopoietic transformation through tyrosine phosphorylation of RSK2 and activation of the MEK/ERK pathway. Cancer Cell 12(3), 201-14.
Rikova K, Guo A, Zeng Q, Possemato A, Yu J, Haack H, Nardone J, Lee K, Reeves C, Li Y, Hu Y, Tan Z, Stokes M, Sullivan L, Mitchell J, Wetzel R, Macneill J, Ren JM, Yuan J, Bakalarski CE, Villen J, Kornhauser JM, Smith B, Li D, Zhou X, Gygi SP, Gu TL, Polakiewicz RD, Rush J, Comb MJ (2007) Global survey of phosphotyrosine signaling identifies oncogenic kinases in lung cancer. Cell 131(6), 1190-203.
Goss VL, Lee KA, Moritz A, Nardone J, Spek EJ, MacNeill J, Rush J, Comb MJ, Polakiewicz RD (2006) A common phosphotyrosine signature for the Bcr-Abl kinase. Blood 107(12), 4888-97.
Walters DK, Mercher T, Gu TL, O'Hare T, Tyner JW, Loriaux M, Goss VL, Lee KA, Eide CA, Wong MJ, Stoffregen EP, McGreevey L, Nardone J, Moore SA, Crispino J, Boggon TJ, Heinrich MC, Deininger MW, Polakiewicz RD, Gilliland DG, Druker BJ (2006) Activating alleles of JAK3 in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Cancer Cell 10(1), 65-75.
Griswold IJ, MacPartlin M, Bumm T, Goss VL, O'Hare T, Lee KA, Corbin AS, Stoffregen EP, Smith C, Johnson K, Moseson EM, Wood LJ, Polakiewicz RD, Druker BJ, Deininger MW (2006) Kinase domain mutants of Bcr-Abl exhibit altered transformation potency, kinase activity, and substrate utilization, irrespective of sensitivity to imatinib. Mol. Cell. Biol. 26(16), 6082-93.
Mercher T, Wernig G, Moore SA, Levine RL, Gu TL, Fröhling S, Cullen D, Polakiewicz RD, Bernard OA, Boggon TJ, Lee BH, Gilliland DG (2006) JAK2T875N is a novel activating mutation that results in myeloproliferative disease with features of megakaryoblastic leukemia in a murine bone marrow transplantation model. Blood 108(8), 2770-9.
Gu TL, Goss VL, Reeves C, Popova L, Nardone J, Macneill J, Walters DK, Wang Y, Rush J, Comb MJ, Druker BJ, Polakiewicz RD (2006) Phosphotyrosine profiling identifies the KG-1 cell line as a model for the study of FGFR1 fusions in acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 108(13), 4202-4.
Rush J, Moritz A, Lee KA, Guo A, Goss VL, Spek EJ, Zhang H, Zha XM, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2005) Immunoaffinity profiling of tyrosine phosphorylation in cancer cells. Nat. Biotechnol. 23(1), 94-101.
Park SS, Kim JS, Tessarollo L, Owens JD, Peng L, Han SS, Tae Chung S, Torrey TA, Cheung WC, Polakiewicz RD, McNeil N, Ried T, Mushinski JF, Morse HC, Janz S (2005) Insertion of c-Myc into Igh induces B-cell and plasma-cell neoplasms in mice. Cancer Res. 65(4), 1306-15.
Raught B, Peiretti F, Gingras AC, Livingstone M, Shahbazian D, Mayeur GL, Polakiewicz RD, Sonenberg N, Hershey JW (2004) Phosphorylation of eucaryotic translation initiation factor 4B Ser422 is modulated by S6 kinases. EMBO J. 23(8), 1761-9.
Cheung WC, Kim JS, Linden M, Peng L, Van Ness B, Polakiewicz RD, Janz S (2004) Novel targeted deregulation of c-Myc cooperates with Bcl-X(L) to cause plasma cell neoplasms in mice. J. Clin. Invest. 113(12), 1763-73.
Li Y, Soos TJ, Li X, Wu J, Degennaro M, Sun X, Littman DR, Birnbaum MJ, Polakiewicz RD (2004) Protein kinase C Theta inhibits insulin signaling by phosphorylating IRS1 at Ser(1101). J. Biol. Chem. 279(44), 45304-7.
Li Y, Eitan S, Wu J, Evans CJ, Kieffer B, Sun X, Polakiewicz RD (2003) Morphine induces desensitization of insulin receptor signaling. Mol. Cell. Biol. 23(17), 6255-66.
Zhang H, Zha X, Tan Y, Hornbeck PV, Mastrangelo AJ, Alessi DR, Polakiewicz RD, Comb MJ (2002) Phosphoprotein analysis using antibodies broadly reactive against phosphorylated motifs. J. Biol. Chem. 277(42), 39379-87.
Kue PF, Taub JS, Harrington LB, Polakiewicz RD, Ullrich A, Daaka Y (2002) Lysophosphatidic acid-regulated mitogenic ERK signaling in androgen-insensitive prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Int. J. Cancer 102(6), 572-9.
Kansra V, Groves C, Gutierrez-Ramos JC, Polakiewicz RD (2001) Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-dependent extracellular calcium influx is essential for CX(3)CR1-mediated activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade. J. Biol. Chem. 276(34), 31831-8.
Gingras AC, Raught B, Gygi SP, Niedzwiecka A, Miron M, Burley SK, Polakiewicz RD, Wyslouch-Cieszynska A, Aebersold R, Sonenberg N (2001) Hierarchical phosphorylation of the translation inhibitor 4E-BP1. Genes Dev. 15(21), 2852-64.