As one of the leading cardiovascular scientists, Professor Piero Anversa (MD), has made numerous substantial contributions to regenerative medicine. He received his MD from the University of Parma and has been a Professor of Pathology at both New York Medical College and the University of Parma. Professor Anversa is currently teaching at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a Professor of Anesthesia and Professor of Medicine in addition to his exceptional work as the Director of the Center of Regenerative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School.


His cutting-edge research focuses on myocardial regenerative capabilities mediated by both exogenous and endogenous progenitor cells. His laboratory has shattered the pre-conceived notion that the heart is a post-mitotic organ characterized by an unchanging number of cells throughout a lifetime. His findings established the concept that multi-potent cardiac stem cells could be involved in the physiological turnover of cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts. His exceptional work has been published in numerous high-impact journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation Research, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, Nature, and Cell. Some titles of papers include “Bone marrow cells regenerate infarcted myocardium”, “Chimerism of the transplanted heart”, “Evidence that human cardiac myocytes divide after infarction”, “Progenitor cells from the explanted heart generate immunocompatible myocardium within the transplanted donor heart”, and “Functionally competent cardiac stem cells can be isolated from endomyocardial biopsies of patients with advanced cardiomyopathies”. His papers illustrate a key understanding of both basic science and clinical relevance in his research as indicated by his work in translational medicine. He has also been a primary investigator in the clinical trial SCIPIO, Cardiac Stem Cells in Patients with Ischemic Cardiomyopathy”, which has shown that cardiac stem cells benefit heart failure patients, a newsworthy   discovery.


He has been given numerous awards for his research including the Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association (2004), and the Louis and Arthur Lucian Award (2008). In 2003 he was given the honour of being the Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association. From 2008-2013 he will serve on the NIH/NIA Board of Scientific Counselors.