Vincent J. Falanga, MD, FACP

Biography

Dr. Vincent Falanga is Emeritus Professor of Dermatology at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. A dedicated researcher, clinician, and educator, Dr. Vincent Falanga has had a longstanding relationship with the Boston University community. For the past 26 years, Dr. Falanga has been a Professor Biochemistry at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine (BUSM). In addition, he served as the Assistant Dean of Clinical and Faculty Affairs, as well as the Director of the Boston University Medical Students Ambulatory Medical Clerkship at Roger Williams Medical Center (RWMC), a research and clinical affiliate of the BUSM. From 1998 to 2013, he was the Chairman and Program Director of the Department of Dermatology at RWMC, a major affiliate of Boston University. At that Institution he was also president of the multispecialty practice group. Prior to that, Dr. Falanga held several academic appointments, including an initial one at the University of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine, and then as Professor of Dermatology and Medicine at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Falanga received training in Internal Medicine and Dermatology at the University of Miami and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. He is Board certified in both Medicine and Dermatology. In 2004, he was the President of the Wound Healing Society, the premier research organization in the world dedicated to wound healing.

Vincent Falanga’s remarkable research career began in the fields of molecular and cell biology, evolving over the years to groundbreaking human-based translational research. He made seminal contributions to the expansion and growth of single cells in low oxygen tension and to the effects and transcriptional regulation of transforming growth factor-ß 1 (TGF-ß1). Dr. Falanga later focused his efforts on human recombinant growth factors and was the first to use a recombinant growth factor (EGF) in human non-healing wounds. He showed that systemic anabolic steroids can heal the painful skin ulcers due to cryo-fibrinogenemia and that doubling the dose of systemically administered pentoxifylline will heal venous ulcers. In 1998, he was the lead author in the use of living bioengineered skin in non-healing wounds, which led to the first ever FDA approval of bioengineered skin for accelerating wound closure. In 2007, he was the first to successfully use autologous cultured bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in human chronic wounds. In 2013 Dr. Falanga moved his clinical research and basic science laboratory at the main campus of the medical school, becoming the first recipient of the “Barbara A. Gilchrest Professorship”. At the same time, he became the Vice-Chair for research in the Department of Dermatology and the residency program director. In those roles Dr. Falanga spearheaded and coordinated many of the research projects related to tissue injury, repair processes, and regeneration. He also recruited junior research faculty members to the Department of Dermatology. Between 2013 and 2016 Dr. Falanga established a newly constructed Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility in which he oversaw the research and development of novel treatments utilizing the therapeutic potential of stem cells in the care of chronic wounds caused by disorders ranging from diabetes to autoimmune disease. The GMP facility remains a potential research laboratory to enrich the translational capabilities of the Medical Center in Dermatology and other specialties. Up to 2016 his project with stem cells in human wounds was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Overall and throughout his scientific career, Dr. Falanga has received more than $45 million in research funding, mostly from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).