Rate My Professor Stefan Marciniak

Professor Stefan Marciniak is Professor of Respiratory Science at the University of Cambridge and Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. He studied medicine at the University of Cambridge as part of its MB/PhD Programme, earning degrees including PhD, MB BChir, MA, and FRCP. After postgraduate clinical training in Cambridge, London, and Edinburgh, he undertook post-doctoral training in New York funded by the Wellcome Trust. He returned to Cambridge as an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow from 2008 to 2012 and established his research group as an MRC Senior Clinical Research Fellow from 2012 to 2017. He holds honorary consultant positions in respiratory medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and Royal Papworth Hospital. Professor Marciniak directs the University of Cambridge MB/PhD Programme, serves as Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine at St Catharine’s College, directs the NHS England Rare Disease Collaborative Network in Familial Pneumothorax, leads the Familial Pneumothorax domain in the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership, chairs Mesothelioma UK’s Research and Audit Scientific Committee, and co-leads the LifeArc Rare Respiratory Disease Centre. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

His laboratory research examines endoplasmic reticulum stress signalling and protein misfolding in lung diseases such as alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, mesothelioma, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis, and genetic pneumothorax including Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome. Clinical research addresses pleural medicine and pneumothorax genetics. Key publications include 'Pharmacological targeting of endoplasmic reticulum stress in disease' (Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 2022, with Chambers JE and Ron D), 'Z-α1-antitrypsin polymers impose molecular filtration in the endoplasmic reticulum after undergoing phase transition to a solid state' (Science Advances, 2022), 'Convergent evolution of somatic escape variants in SERPINA1 in the liver in alpha-1 anti-trypsin deficiency' (Nature Genetics, 2025), and 'Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of human pleura reveals stromal heterogeneity and informs in vitro models of mesothelioma' (European Respiratory Journal, 2024). Funding supports his work from the Medical Research Council, Asthma + Lung UK, Alpha-1 Foundation, June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund, and LifeArc.