Michele Vacca (Short Bio & External Links)
Prof. Michele Vacca (MD, PhD) is an Associate Professor in Internal Medicine at the University of Bari (Italy) and Head of the Hepatic Metabolism, MASLD, and MASH-HCC Laboratory at the University of Bari and the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies (London, UK).
After qualifying as a Medical Doctor (2004) and Specialist in Internal Medicine (2008), Prof. Vacca developed a strong clinical and research interest in obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Metabolic Dysfunction–Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology (2012) at the Mario Negri Sud Institute under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Moschetta, where he explored nuclear receptor–regulated metabolic pathways governing liver regeneration, chronic liver disease, and hepatocellular carcinogenesis. His PhD work laid the foundation for a translational research strategy combining in vivo and in vitro models with molecular biology and transcriptomic approaches.
In 2014, Dr. Vacca joined the MRC Human Nutrition Research Unit and the University of Cambridge as a Clinician Scientist, also serving as Honorary Consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals. Working alongside world-leading experts Prof. Antonio Vidal-Puig and Prof. Jules Griffin, he developed an integrated translational program focused on the mechanisms by which obesity and lipotoxicity drive MASLD progression and liver cancer. His team made key contributions to understanding lipotoxicity-driven fibrogenic signaling (e.g., BMP/TGFβ pathways) and hepatocyte metabolic rewiring in NAFLD, liver regeneration, and hepatocellular carcinoma, with findings published in Nature Metabolism, Molecular Metabolism, and Hepatology.
Prof. Vacca has been an active member of major European research consortia, including EPoS and LITMUS, where he co-led the pre-clinical work package that established the largest collection of pre-clinical MASH models to support therapeutic innovation.
Since 2021, Prof. Vacca has led a translational research program at the University of Bari integrating clinical, molecular, and systems biology approaches to unravel the metabolic and inflammatory networks underlying MASLD and its progression to HCC and CVD.
He also acts as Consultant at the Policlinico di Bari, where he leads the Hepatology and MASLD Outpatient Clinic of the UOC Cesare Frugoni (Head: Prof Antonio Moschetta).
Mail: michele.vacca@uniba.it
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