Dra. M Carolina Florian, group leader at IDIBELL, has been appointed as an ICREA Research Professor. ICREA, the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, offers permanent, tenured positions to the most talented and extraordinary scientists and academics to come and work in Catalonia. Over the years these positions have become a synonym for global academic excellence.

M. Carolina obtained her Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and her Ph.D. in Endocrinology from the University of Milan, Italy. She did her postdoctoral training in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Biology at the University of Ulm, Germany. In 2020 she moved to the Program of Regenerative Medicine at the Bellvitge Institute of Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain, where she is currently leading the Stem Cell Aging research group.

Her research in the past years strongly challenged the concept that aging is an irreversible process. Her team investigates the role of epigenetics and the stem cell microenvironment in driving the aging of somatic stem cells. The scope is to define possibilities to target aging and functionally rejuvenate stem cells and tissues and possibly extend health span and lifespan. To pursue these pioneering research goals, Florian’s team combines several cutting-edge technologies, bridging knowledge from interdisciplinary scientific fields.