Boris Kantor

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurobiology

Kantor Lab, the Duke University Viral Vector Core, facilitates the use of virus-mediated tools for gene transfer by investigators across diverse fields of study such as systems neuroscience, stem cell biology, metabolism, aging, cancer biology and others. Services are open to researchers within the Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, as well as outside investigators, worldwide.

Appointments and Affiliations

  • Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurobiology
  • Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Contact Information

  • Office Location: Bryan Research Building, 311 Research Drive Room 213, Durham, NC 27710
  • Email Address: boris.kantor@duke.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. Grodno State Medical University (Republic of Belarus), 1995
  • M.Sc. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), 1998
  • Ph.D. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), 2005
  • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2009

Representative Publications

  • Ofori, Jones K., Sabrina Ruhrmann, Axel Lindström, Alexander Perfilyev, Melina Martin, Alexandros Karagiannopoulos, Lucia Scisciola, et al. “Publisher Correction: Cell-specific DNA methylation in human alpha and beta cells regulates gene expression in type 2 diabetes.” Nat Metab, September 2, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-026-01610-z.
  • O’Donovan, Bernadette, Joseph Rittiner, Suraj Upadhya, Dellila Hodgson, Boris Kantor, and Ornit Chiba-Falek. “SNCA-targeted transcriptional repression therapy alleviates pathological and behavioral perturbations in a Parkinson's disease mouse model.” Neurotherapeutics 23, no. 5 (September 2026): e01049. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurot.2026.e01049.
  • Ofori, Jones K., Sabrina Ruhrmann, Axel Lindström, Alexander Perfilyev, Melina Martin, Alexandros Karagiannopoulos, Lucia Scisciola, et al. “Cell-specific DNA methylation in human alpha and beta cells regulates gene expression in type 2 diabetes.” Nat Metab 8, no. 4 (April 2026): 957–80. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-026-01498-9.
  • Kantor, Boris, Leanne Duke, and Pradeep G. Bhide. “CRISPR-Cas editing technologies for viral-mediated gene therapies of human diseases: Mechanisms, progress, and challenges.” Mol Ther Nucleic Acids 37, no. 1 (March 12, 2026): 102786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2025.102786.
  • Kantor, Boris, Bernadette O’Donovan, and Ornit Chiba-Falek. “Trends and challenges of AAV-delivered gene editing therapeutics for CNS disorders: Implications for neurodegenerative disease.” Mol Ther Nucleic Acids 36, no. 3 (September 9, 2025): 102635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2025.102635.