The University of Cyprus is recognized as one of the most important research and higher education institution in Cyprus. Two Research Labs at UCY will be involved: the Epigenetics Lab within the Department of Biological Sciences and the NETRL lab within the Department of Computer Science
Epigenetics Laboratory: The lab (www.kirmizislab.com), which is led by Associate Professor Antonis Kirmizis, aims to understand how epigenetic mechanisms, including histone modifications, their regulators and non-coding RNAs, control the transcription of genes. Research in the lab is driven by the fact that deregulation of these epigenetic mechanisms leads to diseases such as cancer. To accomplish the above research aim the lab employs interdisciplinary approaches including molecular biology, biochemical, genetic, genomic and proteomic techniques using both mammalian and yeast cells as model systems. The Epigenetics laboratory has all the required facilities and equipment, such as a BM3-BC yeast colony processing robot (S&P Robotics Inc), Sporeplay dissection microscope (Singer Instruments), electrophoreses apparatus, PCR machines, yeast culture incubators, protein purification systems, plate readers, etc. that will all be necessary for the implementation of the proposed project. Furthermore, the laboratory has accumulated unique tools and expertise within the field of yeast genetics and has established various protocols, such as, the SGA procedure, yeast mutagenesis, yeast strain construction, recombinant protein production that are needed for the successful accomplishment of the proposed studies. Currently the lab hosts 4 postdocs, 4 PhD students, 2 Masters students and one technician.
People
Antonis Kirmizis, PhD
Dr. Kirmizis, a tenured associate professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences (DoBS), is an expert in the field of epigenetics and yeast genetics. He has over 15 years’ of research experience in investigating molecular mechanisms using yeast as a model organism and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles as main author at high impact peer-reviewed journals (Nature, NSMB, etc.). He obtained his doctoral degree in 2004 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in US and after completing his postdoctoral work as a Marie Curie & EMBO fellow at Cambridge University UK, he joined the UCY in 2010 as Principal Investigator in the DoBS. There he received numerous prestigious and highly competitive research grants as coordinator including an ERC-starting grant and several national Excellence grants awarded from RIF totaling over 3.5 million euros. Since becoming a PI, he trained 8 post-docs, 7 PhD students, 5 Masters students and 12 undergraduates, many of whom successfully published their work in respected journals, received fellowships (including national and international postdoctoral fellowships) and scientific awards, and most of them moved on to jobs in science. Collectively, his group has an outstanding reputation in interdisciplinary approaches including molecular biology, cutting-edge genetics, and proteomic techniques. In particular, his group defined the cellular role of the previously uncharacterised histone N-terminal acetylation and of its associated enzyme NAA40 in transcription and cell growth. The findings from this work have been published in respected scientific journals (PLoS Genetics 2013, EMBO Rep 2016, Epigenetics & Chromatin 2020, Cancers 2020). He has also initiated a multi-partner collaborative study using yeast S. cerevisiae as model to identify new epigenetic regulators and mechanisms of transcriptional reinduction memory with single cell approaches (Molecular Cell, 2020).
Dr. Stylianana Kyriakoudi
Styliana is a holder of a PhD in Medical Genetics from the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. She has performed postdoctoral research in the fields of Cancer Immunology and Diabetes at University College London and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Styliana joined the Epigenetics and Gene Regulation Laboratory in June 2022 where she will be unraveling fundamental properties of Molecular Communication through the analysis of the yeast pheromone system
Andreas Pitsillides, PhD
Andreas Pitsillides is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, co-director of the Networks Research Laboratory (NetRL, http://www.NetRL.cs.ucy.ac.cy), which he founded in 2002, and was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) (2017-2020), School of Electrical and Information engineering, and the University of Johannesburg, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science, South Africa (2014 -2017), in Johannesburg, South Africa. Andreas was the Department of Computer Science Chair from 2014-2016, a Founding member and Chairman of the Board of the Cyprus Academic and Research Network (CYNET) from 2000-2016. His broad research interests include communication networks (fixed and mobile/wireless), Nanonetworks (e-m and bio-based) and Software Defined Metasurfaces and Metamaterials, the Internet- and Web- of Things, Smart Systems (e.g. Smart Grid) and Smart Spaces (e.g. Home, City), and Internet technologies and their application in Mobile e-Services, especially e-health, and security. He has a particular interest in adapting tools from various fields of applied mathematics such as adaptive non-linear control theory, computational intelligence, game theory, and recently complex systems and nature inspired techniques, to solve problems in communication networks. Published over 300 refereed papers in flagship journals (e.g. IEEE, Elsevier, IFAC, Springer), international conferences, and book chapters, participated in over 40 European Commission and locally funded research projects with over 6.7 million Euro as principal or co-principal investigator, received several awards, including best paper, presented keynotes, invited lectures at major research organisations, short courses at international conferences and short courses to industry.
Dr. Costas Pitris, PhD is currently a Professor at the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus. He is heading the "Optical DiagnosticsLaboratory"which he established in 2004. Prof. Pitris has completed his studies at the University of Texas at Austin (BS Honors in Electrical Engineering, 1993, MS in Electrical Engineering, 1995), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Electrical and Medical Engineering, 2000), and Harvard Medical School (MD Magna Cum Laude in Medicine, 2002). His main research interests include the areas of optical diagnostics, biomedical imaging and spectroscopy, as well as signal/image analysis and computational intelligence. Prof. Pitris has served as a PI or a co-PI in competitive research grants totaling over € 7.25 mil. He is also one of the co-founders and a member of the executive committee of the KIOS Center of Excellence, which was the recipient of a H2020 TEMAING grant of over € 40 mil. Prof. Pitris has published 51 peer reviewed journal publications, 134 conference proceedings,5 book chapters, and 1 book. He also holds 11 US, European and other patents, and is the cofounder of two start-up companies aiming to commercialize important research findings. The citations to his work have reached more than 13,500 (with an h-index of 37) according to Google Scholar. Prof. Pitris is a grant reviewer for the European Commission (FP7, H2020, EUREKA), National Institutes of Health, USA (Biomedical Optics), the Cyprus Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (Start-up Incubators.)
