Before joining the University of Malta's Dept. of Anatomy, Prof Schembri-Wismayer worked in St Luke's teaching hospital in Accident and Emergency medicine and at the National Blood Transfusion centre, amongst others.
He read for his medical degree at the University of Malta and then pursued his PhD in Cellular Oncology at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in affiliation with Glasgow University, graduating in 2000. Between the two he did voluntary medical work with the Swedish Rotary on the Kenya/Somali border.
He was the national EU contact organisation (MCST/XM) expert for the Life sciences for many years, signing the first project Malta was involved in (TRAIN_NET) as a paying framework member.
He leads the Cancer Therapeutic and Stem Cell Innovation (CATSCI) lab at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking, developing novel immunotherapies and differentiation therapy for diverse cancers and studying pluripotent stem cells. He has a strong interest in anatomical biomechanics, collaborating with engineering colleagues to produce a novel hip joint, which is patented in three continents and licensed out to British start-up Garland Surgical. He is now developing the (patent pending) MaltaKnee, another orthopaedic device. He was responsible for isolating and freezing cells from the last pure Maltese ox (Gendus Malti). He supervised several Ph.D and Masters students and teaches Anatomy/Cell Biology to undergraduate students.
Prof Schembri-Wismayer won a contract with the EU's FP6 programme to produce a television series, later called X-lab,to encourage youngsters to take up science as a career. Filmed in Malta, Cyprus and around Europe it was distributed Europe-wide. He regularly takes part in "Teen Science Cafes" to educate children about science, talks on TV and Radio shows about research and contributes to science communication fora. Prof Schembri-Wismayer has brought in more than 2.5 million worth of grant funding to the University.
He regularly collaborates in research with local industry, particularly, Nutribiotech Ltd and with international partners, including in in China, Greece, Serbia and Portugal. He also sits on the management committees of 3 different European COST actions
