Dr. Manlio Vinciguerra, Ph.D., is the new European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Translational Stem Cell Biology at the Medical University of Varna (MUV). Starting November 2020 he joined the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Transplantology at the Research Institute of the Medical University of Varna. Dr. Vinciguerra will lead an international team of researchers focused on stem cell applications for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The team and its activities are funded by the European Commission via the TRANSTEM project.

Dr. Vinciguerra has extensive experience and a world-class scientific publication and leadership track record, which will enable him to make appropriate resource allocation decisions, to supervise team members, and to apply for research funding.

Dr. Vinciguerra has collaborative ties with the International Clinical Research Center (ICRC) in Brno, Czech Republic – and with the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, at the University College London (UCL), United Kingdom – where he served as Principal Investigator. His focus pertains the fields of digestive and cardiovascular diseases, with research conducted in 6 European countries (Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, UK, Czech Republic). Moreover, he has a wider range of scientific interests: from cell biology, growth factor signaling, epigenetics to aging, and pre-clinical medicine in various organ systems. This expertise will help to achieve the major goal of the TRANSTEM project: to place MUV at the forefront of research, development, and innovation in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Manlio Vinciguerra, Ph.D. was born 1976 in Catania, Italy. He obtained a degree in Biomolecular Sciences from the University of Catania, Italy, in 1999. He received his Ph.D. in Internal Medicine (2004) and research training at the University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland, and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), in Italy and in Germany (2005-2011).

In 2008 he won the prestigious fellowship awarded by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. There he was exposed to the science of epigenetics, which studies how the genes are controlled independent of the DNA sequence.

In 2012, Dr. Vinciguerra obtained his first independent position and became Senior Lecturer at the Division of Medicine, University College London, UK. He created a small research group, which investigated the epigenetic mechanisms that control the progression of liver diseases, from fat accumulation to cancer.

In 2016 he won a grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) to work on age-associated liver diseases and find out the role of cancer stem cells in the development of these diseases. During his experience across Europe, Dr. Vinciguerra teamed up with a lot of great scientists, and together they were able to publish more than 175 papers.

He is a member of Who’s Who in Gerontology, Cancer Epigenetics Society (CES), Via Academy – Top Italian Scientists, International Cell Senescence Association (ICSA), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB).