BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Michel V. Hadjihannas is a biomedical researcher whose work connects molecular mechanism, disease biology, and clinically grounded human evidence. His scientific formation spans the United Kingdom, Israel, and Germany, and his research trajectory has been shaped by a persistent interest in how disease processes can be understood across scales.
His earlier work established a mechanistic foundation in Wnt/β-catenin signaling, chromosomal instability, and disease-associated cellular regulation, helping define how a developmental pathway central to carcinogenesis extends into mitosis, cell-cycle control, and centrosome biology. More recent work has extended this foundation into translational immunology, structure-informed analysis, and cohort-linked human research, with the aim of connecting tractable biology to serious disease relevance.
Current direction
He is currently focused on research that links biological mechanism to clinically meaningful human evidence. This includes mechanistic and perturbational experimental systems, including lentiviral strategies, work on immune-mediated disease, and the use of clinical cohorts, epidemiological reasoning, and real-world data to test whether biological signals remain robust in human disease. His current work brings together mechanistic immunology, human data analysis, and a broader informatics and AI-oriented perspective.
Career trajectory
Current
Translational biomedical research
Chronic Inflammation and Immunology
Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB), UKSH
Kiel University, Germany
2014–2019 Senior Research Scientist
Institute of Human Genetics
University of Erlangen, Germany
2009–2014 Project Leader
Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF)
University of Erlangen, Germany
2006–2009 Postdoctoral Fellow
Nikolaus Fiebiger Center of Molecular Medicine
University of Erlangen, Germany
2002–2006 PhD / Dr. rer. nat.
Nikolaus Fiebiger Center of Molecular Medicine
University of Erlangen, Germany
2001–2002 Research Fellowship
Institute of Biochemistry
University of Erlangen, Germany
Work on transcription factors of the glial cell missing (GCM) family
2000–2001 Research Fellowship
Department of Immunology
Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Tumor immunology and cancer-fighting T-cells
Education
2006 PhD / Dr. rer. nat. – Molecular Oncology
Nikolaus Fiebiger Center of Molecular Medicine (NFZ)
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
The role of the Wnt/β-catenin target gene conductin in mitosis and chromosomal instability of colorectal cancer.
2000 MSc – Molecular Pathology and Toxicology
Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences
University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Detection of human coronavirus in infected cultured human lung fibroblast (HELF) cells.
1998 BSc – Medical Biochemistry
Faculty of Medicine
University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Regulation of cardiac ATP-sensitive potassium channel.