Brief Bio
Dr. Thanos received his diploma in Biological Sciences from the University of Athens and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Crete.  He had extensive training as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the Foundation for Research and Technology in Crete and continued on at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Dr. Tom Mantis’ laboratory at Harvard University.  In 1995, Dr. Thanos was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University.  In 2000 he became Associate Professor with Tenure, and the following year (2001) he carried out the duties of Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming”, Greece.  Currently, Dr. Thanos holds the position of Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University, and is the Director of the Center of Basic Research II and the Vice-Chairman of the Scientific Board at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Greece.

Honors and Awards

• Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, 1992-1994
• Irma T. Hirschl Career Scientist Award, 1996-2001
• March of Dimes-Basil O’Connor Starter Research Scholar Award, 1996-1998
• Pew Scholars Award in Biomedical Sciences 1996-2000
• Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America 2000-2005
• Christopher Lambort Award in Basic Sciences (2001)
• Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer Award in Basic Sciences (2002)
• European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Member (2004)

Selected Publications

Thanos, D. and Maniatis, T. (1992) The High Mobillity Group protein HMG I(Y) is required for NFκB dependent virus induction of the human IFNβ gene.  Cell 71, 777-789.

Thanos, D. and Maniatis T. (1995).  Virus induction of human IFN-β gene expression requires the assembly of an enhanceosome.  Cell 83, 1091-1100.

Merika, M., Williams, A.J., Chen, G., Collins, T., and Thanos, D.  (1998).  Recruitment of CBP/p300 by the IFN-β enhanceosome is required for synergistic activation of transcription.  Molecular Cell  1, 277-287.

Munshi, N., Merika, M., Yie, J., Senger, K., and Thanos, D.  (1998).  Acetylation of HMG I(Y) by the CBP turns off IFN-β expression by disrupting the enhanceosome.  Molecular Cell 2, 457-467

Senger, K., Merika, M., Agalioti T., Yie, J., Escalante, C.R., Chen G., Aggarwal. A.K., and Thanos, D.  (2000). Gene Repression by Coactivator Repulsion.  Molecular Cell  6, 931-937

Agalioti, T., Lomvardas, S., Parekh, B.S., Yie, J., Maniatis, T., and Thanos, D.  (2000).  Ordered Recruitment of Chromatin Modifying and Basal Factors to the IFN-β promoter.  Cell 103, 667-678

Munshi, N., Agalioti, T., Lomvardas, S, Merika, M., Chen, G., and Thanos, D.  (2001)  Coordination of a Transcriptional Switch by HMG I(Y) Acetylation.  Science 293, 1133-1137.

Lomvardas, S., and Thanos, D.  (2001).  Nucleosome sliding via TBP DNA binding in vivo.  Cell 106, 685-696.

Lomvardas, S., and Thanos, D.  (2002).  Modifying gene expression programs by altering core promoter chromatin architecture.  Cell 110, 261-271

Agalioti, T., Chen, G., and Thanos, D.  (2002).  Deciphering the Transcriptional histone acetylation code for a human gene.  Cell 111, 381-392

Guan, Z., Giustietto, M., Lomvardas, S., Thanos, D., and Kandel, E. (2002). Integration of long-term-memory-related synaptic plasticity involves bidirectional regulation of gene expression and chromatin structure. Cell 111, 483-493

Agelopoulos, M., and Thanos, D. (2006). Epigenetic Determination of a cell specific gene expression program by ATF-2 and the histone variant macroH2A. EMBO J 25, 4843-4853