Michele De Luca, MD is Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine “Stefano Ferrari”, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and Scientific Director and Founder of Holostem Terapie Avanzate S.r.l.
Michele De Luca is internationally recognised as a leading scientist in epithelial stem cell biology aimed at clinical application in regenerative medicine and played a pivotal role in epithelial stem cell-mediated cell therapy and gene therapy. Beside his work on the use of human epidermal stem cell cultures in life-saving treatment of massive full-thickness burns, he, and his principal collaborator Graziella Pellegrini, were first in establishing human urethral epithelial stem cell cultures aimed at urethra regeneration in posterior hypospadias and human limbal stem cell culture aimed at corneal regeneration in patients with severe limbal stem cell deficiency. This latter treatment leads to recovery of vision in patients with poor alternative therapy and was recently approved as advanced therapy medicinal product by the European Medicine Agency with the name of Holoclar®. He is currently coordinating several ex-vivo epidermal stem cell-mediated combined cell and gene therapy clinical trials for genetic skin diseases as Epidermolysis Bullosa. During these studies, Michele De Luca and Graziella Pellegrini reported life-saving regeneration of the entire human epidermis of a Junctional EB patient by means of transgenic epidermal stem cells.