Pr Vladimir Katanaev

• Professeur ordinaire, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Genève.
• Directeur scientifique, Translational Oncology Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Doha.

I earned my MSc degree in 1994 in biochemistry and molecular biology from Krasnoyarsk State University (now Siberian Federal University) and Moscow State University, Russia. I obtained my PhD degree in 2000 at the Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. I next worked as Postdoc (2000-2003) and Associate Research Scientist (2003-2005) at the Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University (New York, USA).

My first Faculty position was at the University of Konstanz (Germany, 2005), followed by Associate Professorship at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology (University of Lausanne, 2011). In 2018, I became Full Professor and Chair of Translational Oncology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva (Switzerland). In 2025, I additionally took the position of Scientific Director of Translational Oncology Research Center at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Doha, Qatar.

Overall, my scientific career path has been driving me to study the cellular signaling mechanisms, such as the Wnt and GPCR signaling pathways, how they are broken or corrupted in disease such as cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders, and how the obtained knowledge can be used to develop innovative treatments against devastating diseases.