Prof. Algirdas Utkus Begins Tenure as Director of the VU MF Institute of Biomedical Sciences

Prof. Algirdas Utkus. VU MF archive

From October 3, Prof. Algirdas Utkus began working as the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Vilnius University (VU) Faculty of Medicine (MF), replacing Prof. Algirdas Edvardas Tamošiūnas, who had been the head of the institute until now.

Prof. Algirdas Utkus – researcher at the VU Faculty of Medicine (areas of scientific interests – clinical and segregation analysis of cleft lip (and palate), biological asymmetry, syndromeology, genetics of hereditary and congenital diseases, genetic diagnostics of cystic fibrosis; genetic diagnostics of Huntington's disease, possible effects of teratogens on the fetus).

He is a lecturer and a medical geneticist. From 2004 to 2012, he served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and from 2012 to 2022, he was the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. Prof. A. Utkus is also the Head of the VU MF Department of Human and Medical Genetics as well as the Director of the Centre for Medical Genetics at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos. He has been awarded the Lithuanian Science Prize (in 2021) and the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (in 2023).

The VU MF Institute of Biomedical Medicine is an academic branch of the Faculty with the rights of an administrative unit, where scientific research is conducted, experimental, social and technological development, and study activities are carried out.