George Altankov

Biography

George Altankov received his MD in 1974 from the Medical University of Varna (Bulgaria) where he also started his research career as Assistant Professor of Physiology. After obtaining his PhD he joined a research team at the Institute of Biophysics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, advancing to Associate Professor (1995) and Full Professor (2004) as well as Head of the Cell Adhesion Department (2004-2007) and Research Director of the institute (2004-2006). In 2003 he obtained a Doctor of Sciences degree in Cell Biology. In 1991-1993 he joined the group of Fred Grinnell in Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and later visited several leading laboratories in Europe, including Humboldt University, GKSS Research Center (Berlin), Technical University of Barcelona and others, working on joint projects. He was awarded a Marie Curie senior EU fellowship and a Sabbatical Grant of the Spanish Ministry (2006). He has published more than 100 original papers and filed several patents in the field of cell-biomaterials interaction and tissue engineering. Since April 2007 he has been an ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), continuing his research in the field with emphasis on the organization of extracellular matrix at biomaterials interfaces.

Research Interest

Molecular Dynamics at Cell-Biomaterial Interface