Prof. Dr. Marco Tatullo, MD, DMD, PhD leads world-class research on tissue engineering, bioactive scaffolds, and mesenchymal stem cells. Prof. Tatullo first described a new MSCs lineage, termed “hPCy-MSCs” (Human Periapical-Cyst Mesenchymal Stem Cells). He got the 1st prize by “International Association for Dental Research” (IADR) “Robert Frank Award” competition. Awarded with the high honorary mention by the major of Crotone (Italy), with the "Nicolino d'oro" prize, awarded by the city Mayor of Bari, with a public award for "high scientific merits" by the "Culture Committee" of the City of Bari (Italy). He has been awarded with an official certificate of appreciation from the mayor of Taranto (Italy) for the highest international scientific merits achieved on stem cell research and therapy. He won the “Talents” Award (“Premio dei Talenti”) for the top-class career - awarded by the "Bocconi Business University" of Milan and the "University of Bari". Moreover, he won the “Riccardo Garberoglio Award” (1st prize) for the clinical research in endodontics – awarded by SIE – Italian Society of Endodontics. He is “Honorary Member” of University of Bari Alumni Association. Currently (2020-2021), he serves as the President of Stem Cell Biology Group (IADR). Member of “Science Information Committee” working in collaboration with FDI and WHO for research issues in dentistry. Member of the official committee for “IADR Innovation in Oral Care Awards”. Editorial Board Member of “Journal of Dental Research” (2021-2023). Moreover, he serves the EUropean-Commission as official evaluator/rapporteur in several International Programs (M-ERA.net, and COST-action), and is involved as official senior evaluator by Poland National Science Center, Agencè National de la Recherche (ANR – France), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Czech Science Foundation (GACR), Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (RPF), and MIUR (Reprise). 

Prof. Tatullo has been/is P.I. in several EU-funded projects, getting more than 40MLN euro in the last 10 years. Prof. Tatullo is Guest Professor at “Sechenov University of Moscow”. Currently, he is Professor (RTD-B) in the Medical School and in the PhD course “Applied Neurosciences” at the Dept. of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sense Organs - University of Bari. Recently, he worked as C.R.O. and Scientific Director at Tecnologica Research Institute – Stem Cell Unit – in Crotone. 

Prof. Tatullo has a strong scientific production, with more than 100 SCOPUS indexed articles, more 2300 citations and a h-Index=38 (Scopus 2021) he has been recently cited among the top 2% worldwide researchers, and he is member of “Top Italian Scientists” community. 

Regenerative medicine is a growing field of biomedicine able to merge many different aspects of tissue engineering and medical biology, taking into high consideration topics related to molecular biology, biomaterials and biomedical engineering. TERM aims to aid surgeons/clinicians to regenerate, repair or replace tissues. The oral and maxillofacial surgery have daily commitment towards the treatments of trauma, of degenerative diseases and of many pathological conditions leading to a tissue loss. Researchers from all the world continuously try to find the proper treatment to regenerate damaged tissues: a promising technique is based on the use of growth factors and platelet concentrates in oral and maxillofacial applications.  

The new actors of regenerative medicine are undoubtedly the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs): the most recent studies by Prof. Marco Tatullo have demonstrated to regenerate part of damaged tissues by using MSCs taken from sites in several parts of human body. Oral cavity can offer different and reliable sites where to collect MSCs: dental pulp, periodontal ligament, apical papilla, dental follicle, and recently also periapical inflammatory cysts. During the last 10 years, the teams headed by Prof. Tatullo have achieved highly-impacting scientific results on stem cell research, focusing their research on oral-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Recently, Prof. Tatullo first described a new MSCs lineage, termed “hPCy-MSCs” (Human Periapical-Cyst Mesenchymal Stem Cells): such novel MSCs have been demonstrated to be highly suitable for bone repairing and for neural tissue regeneration, with a specific target to treat Parkinson disease. 

Main research focus 

• Dental stem cells (DSCs) 
• Novel DSCs and comparation with well-known ones 
• Main lineages and DSCs differentiation 
• Stem cells in clinical practice 
• Biomaterials 

• Regenerative Medicine
• Stem Cell Biology 
• Medical Sciences and Techniques