Prof. Dr. Valentin Djonov

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Prof. Valentin Djonov MD

After several years in neuro- and general surgery, in 1992 V. Djonov entered a research position in the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
In 1996 he became a research assistant in the Division of Developmental Biology within the Institute of Anatomy, Bern. This was followed by his habilitation (assistant professorship) in 2002 followed by associate professor in 2006 at the same institute.
In September 2007, V. Djonov was promoted to full professor and became co-director of the Institute of Anatomy in Fribourg, Switzerland. After a period of 3 years, he returned to Berne where he is currently the director of the Institute of Anatomy and medical advisor at the translational research center SITEM, Switzerland.
The main scientific interest of his group is the radio-biological effects induced by Spatially Fractionated Radiation Therapy (SFRT). SFRT is a novel radiotherapy technique using spatially fractionated X-rays to produce alternating regions of high and low dose deposition in the target tissue. This results in unique radiation/tissue interactions that expands the therapeutic index of radiation therapy by increasing tumor control, including that of radioresistant malignancies, while simultaneously exhibiting remarkable normal tissue sparing even when delivering peak doses of hundreds of Grays SFRT demonstrated first promising results by treatment of inoperable, radioresistant lesions in human and pet patients.

Valentin Djonov is the author of more than 300 scientific papers with more than 16’000 citations (h-index=65) and numerous patents.