He graduated from Novosibirsk State University and received his Ph.D. Degree in Biological Sciences in 1994 from Institute of Molecular Biology SPA “VECTOR” in Russian Federation. He moved to the U.S. in 1996 for post-doctoral training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and joined the Gene Therapy Center, directed by Dr. David T. Curiel. He was appointed to Research Assistant Professor in the Department of General Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2003. Dr. Dmitriev academic interests include gene therapy and vaccine development while his area of research expertise relates to the engineering of targeted adenoviral vectors to address the requirements of virotherapy treatment for cancer and prophylactic vaccine interventions.