Professor Radka Kaneva graduated with a BSc degree in Biotechnology and an MSc degree in Genetic and Cellular Engineering from the Biological Faculty of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She specialized in molecular biology in the Biochemistry Department of Oxford University, England from 1993 until 1994 and in molecular genetics in the Human Genetics Institute, University of Bonn, Germany, with a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Research Foundation from 2000 to 2002. She defended her doctoral degree in psychiatric genetics in 2000.
Professor Kaneva gives lectures in Biochemistry and Pathobiochemistry to students in Medicine, Pharmacy, Dental Medicine, and Molecular Biology and Genetics in the MSc programme Medical infomatics and Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
She is the executive manager of the Molecular Medicine Centre at Medical University, Sofia since the founding of the centre in 2006. The Molecular Medicine Centre is a leading national research centre for the study of the genetic, genomic and epigenetic alterations in common socially significant and rare hereditary diseases, oncological diseases, molecular pathology, pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine. Prof. Kaneva is the coordinator of the Bulgarian node of BBMRI-ERIC, the European biobanking research infrastructure.
The main research interests of Professor Kaneva are in the field of neuropsychiatric and behavioural genetics, oncogenetics, pharmacogenetics, and genomics. She is a manager and participant in many national and international collaborative projects, related to oncogenetics, genetics and psychiatric diseases, epilepsy, deafness, eye diseases, and pharmacogenetics.
Professor Kaneva is a member of the prestigious international professional and scientific associations, such as ESHG, ISPG, EACR, and a chairperson of the National Association “Molecular Genetics in Medicine”. Co-founder and member of the Administrative Board of the Bulgarian Association for Personalized Medicine (BAPEMED). Member of the editorial boards of scientific magazines, such as Frontiers in Genetics, Behavioural and Psychiatric Genetics, Biochemical Genetics, Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences, South East European Journal of Human Genetics.
Recipient of the award “Golden Panacea” in the field of biomedicine from the Academic Council of Medical University, Sofia, 2008, and the award “Acad. Dr. Orahovats”, 2015, for significant contribution to research and teaching in the field of fundamental science at Medical University, Sofia. She received the Pythagoras Prize of the Ministry of Education and Science for a recognized scientist in biomedicine with a substantial contribution in the field of science for 2015.
