Anatole Klyosov

Anatole A. Klyosov (; born 20 November 1946 in Chernyakhovsk) is a Russian-American scientist who worked in the fields of physical chemistry, chemical kinetics, enzyme catalysis, industrial biochemistry, chemical engineering, cancer research, and DNA genealogy. In 1989 Klyosov immigrated to the US. In the USSR he was working on kinetics and mechanisms of enzyme catalysis, for which he was awarded the top national prize for young scientists, and on biotechnology of converting agricultural waste products into useful products, for which he was awarded the top national prize in science and technology (1984). Later in the US he was working on cancer research at Harvard Medical School, then, in the industry, on turning paper mill waste into composite deck boards, and yet later in biomedical research. He helped found a company, and later joined it as CSO, that was founded to use carbohydrates (galactose derivatives in particular) to reduce side effects of chemotherapy.

Early life and education Klyosov earned a Ph.D. and D.Sc. in physical chemistry, along with an M.S. in enzyme kinetics, from Moscow State University. From 1979 to 1981, he served as a professor in the Department of Chemical Enzymology at Moscow State University. In the winter of 1982/1983 he became the first person behind the Iron Curtain who was allowed by the government of the USSR to use the computer network that later (1990) became the Internet, in order for him to represent the USSR in the First Global Computer Conference (set up by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO) hosted on the network; he used an x.25-connected computer at a Moscow institute called VNIIPAS. For that he was awarded the Gold Medal for Industrial Achievements in the USSR (1984). after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power,

From 1996 to 2006 Klyosov worked at a subsidiary of Kadant, where he applied enzymology to processing of waste products from the paper-making industry, and following advice from a friend in the plastics industry, helped create a business that used cellulose granules as filler material for plastic composite products.

In 2001 he helped found Pro-Pharmaceuticals, writing its Business Plan, a company that was formed to add certain carbohydrates (galactose derivatives in particular) to existing cancer drugs to make them work better, and reducing their side effects in particular. He joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer in 2006. and gave Klyosov a one-year contract to continue as CSO the same month. Klyosov resigned as CSO in 2013, when the company moved to Atlanta, GA. The company was renamed as Galectin Therapeutics in May 2011. The company was renamed as Galectin Therapeutics in May 2011. He then became a member of the company's scientific advisory board with the title Founder Emeritus. He developed methods for analyzing Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variations to trace ancestry, population migration, and historical relationships. He published ten books between 2010 and 2016 in this field. Some authors have proposed alternative accounts to the "Out of Africa" model. Klyosov has advanced an "Into Africa" hypothesis that attributes certain lineage origins outside Africa; however, large-scale genetic studies continue to support a recent African origin for anatomically modern humans. Reports of R1b lineages in parts of Africa have been documented and should be described with appropriate sourcing.

A 2015 open letter from scientists in various fields said that his writing could fuel hatred “attracting readers whose nationalist and political ambitions are not satisfied with the world’s scientific body of knowledge.” "DNA genealogy" has been described in the letter as pseudoscience and "DNA demagoguery”. Klyosov responded in his book “Who Does Not Like DNA Genealogy” (2015) pointed that it was personal vendetta by a few Russian scientists who could not stand criticism by Klyosov of their low level “science”, and that most of those who signed that open letter had no knowledge in DNA Genealogy.

Klyosov is the founder and president of the Academy of DNA Genealogy In 2013, he became editor-in-chief of the journal Advances in Anthropology, published by Scientific Research Publishing. His paper in that journal (together with I.L. Rozhanskii) on re-examining the “Out of Africa” theory collected 167,442 views and 40,400 downloads (September, 2025). In 2014 he became Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia.

Publications

Books in English (Translated to Chinese, Science Press, China, 2010; translated to Russian, НОТ Publishing House, 2010, 736 с.)

Anatole A. Klyosov, DNA Genealogy, 1998, by Scientific Research Publishing, book online

Books in Russian

Enzymology

Publications on "DNA genealogy"