Piero Anversa, M.D.
An honor graduate of the University of Parma Medical School in his hometown of Parma, Italy, Dr. Anversa began his academic career there. He first served the New York Medical College as Visiting Assistant Professor of Pathology beginning in 1972. He joined the full time faculty in 1985, rising to the position of Professor of Pathology in 1986. He was appointed Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute and Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology in 1991, and he was the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Medicine since 1999. He is a permanent Visiting Professor of Medicine at the University of Rome and Visiting Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He recently moved to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he is in charge of the Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine.
In a series of reports published in the last 20 years, Dr. Anversa has presented evidence in favor of the potential regenerative ability of the heart in small and large mammals, including humans. His novel experiments showing that cardiac myocytes undergo a cycle of programmed death and renewal have given a dramatically clearer explanation of the underlying disease process at work in heart failure.
More recently, Dr. Anversa’s laboratory has documented that the heart possesses a stem cell compartment that can regenerate myocytes and coronary vessels. These findings have raised the unique possibility to reconstitute dead myocardium after infarction, to repopulate the hypertrophic decompensated heart with new better functioning myocytes and vascular structures and perhaps to reverse ventricular dilation and wall thinning, restoring the physiological and anatomical characteristics of the normal heart. Importantly, the identification of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) in animals indicated that the heart possesses an intrinsic ability for tissue repair and put forward unprecedented prospective therapeutic strategies for the failing heart. Although, until recently, the existence of a human CPC was uncertain, the Anversa’s laboratory has identified and characterized a human c-kit-positive CPC that is stored in myocardial niches from where it migrates to areas of damage leading to regeneration of cardiomyocytes, coronary arteries, arterioles and capillary profiles.
Dr. Anversa has received numerous awards and distinctions, including the Laura ad Honorem of the University of Bologna Medical School, the Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association, and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association. Dr. Anversa holds three NIH research grants (R01s) and a Program Project Grant also from the NIH.