Darius Widera | Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Research Division Lead
University of Reading

Darius Widera is Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Research Division Lead for Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences at the University of Reading. His lab is mainly interested in adult stem cells and their secretome, inflammatory signalling cascades in health and disease, and novel methods for clinical-grade three-dimensional cultivation of human stem cells. His research focuses on the regenerative potential of mesenchymal stromal cells, neural crest-derived stem cells, and pluripotent stem cells in different disorders and conditions. In particular, his work aims to tackle disorders and conditions with an inflammatory component, such as osteoporosis and lung, brain, and breast cancer. He graduated in Biochemistry from Witten/Herdecke University (Germany) and received his PhD in Neurobiochemistry from the same institution in 2007. From 2013 to 2015, he served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Bielefeld (Germany). In February 2015, he was appointed Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Reading, promoted to Associate Professor in 2019, and to full Professor in 2023. Since 2022, Prof. Widera has also been the Research Division Lead for the Reading School of Pharmacy at the University of Reading. He has published over 100 research manuscripts (h-index > 37, i10-index > 74) and has presented his research as invited talks at numerous international conferences in the UK, Germany, USA, Italy, Ireland, Finland, San Marino, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, and China. To date, he has supervised 11 PhD and 26 Master’s students to completion. In addition to his academic duties, he has acted as a consultant for UPM Biomedicals and is currently a Scientific Advisory Board Member for Argon Medical Ltd, Germany. Prof. Widera is also actively engaged in science communication and has consulted for national and international media, including The Times, BBC, Daily Mail, AFP, Nature, and ITN.