Scientific Personnel

Brief Bio

Dr. Gorgoulis is currently Professor and Director of the Department of Histology – Embryology (DHE), Medical School, University of Athens, Greece and head of the Molecular Carcinogenesis Group (MCG). He is also Adjunct Professor in the Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens and an Honorary Professor, at Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, and an elected member in the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Prof. Gorgoulis started his career at the DHE, where despite the initial difficult conditions in infrastructure, know-how and funding, he succeeded in establishing a strong international research program and creating a highly skilled and competent research group (MCG).

His main research interests are: Mechanisms leading to genomic instability; The role of the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway as an anti-tumor barrier; The development of new compounds and methods to detect with precision and sensitivity senescent cells. The role of Cdc6 in cancer progression.

He has established collaborations with highly-recognized cancer research scientists (eg Profs T.D. Halazonetis, J. Bartek, M. Oren, a.o.). These collaborations have enabled the development of a paramount research program headed by Prof. Gorgoulis. Currently, he has ongoing collaborations with more than 16 different international laboratories. During this continuous effort he succeeded to obtain financial support from several domestic (total grant >1.500.000 €) and European grants (total grant > 6.000.000€).

As a result Prof. Gorgoulis has 247 publications in international peer-reviewed journals listed in SCI and more than 16.720 citations. The h index is 60. He’s international recognition counts 150 communications in International conferences, seminars etc, and has also contributed with 7 chapters in international text-books.

He has also received more than 30 awards and scholarships throughout his entire academic and research career as well as numerous other distinctions (i.e. one of the most Highly Cited Greek Scientists). He is a reviewer in 60 peer-reviewed scientific journals and 27 National and International Funding programs and is a member of 7 scientific societies. Also the work of MCG has been included among the most important scientific contributors in the field of carcinogenesis and cell cycle (Malumbres & Barbacid, Nature Reviews Cancer, 2009). Most of the top ranked publications (e.g. in Nature, Cell, Nat Cel BioJ, JCB) have received instant recognition as they were accompanied by corresponding highlights in editorial articles and/or journal covers.
At educational level, Prof. Gorgoulis teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the Athens Medical School and Dental School on Histology, Embryology and Cellular Biology. He has supervised more than 20 PhD students (the last 5 years), 5 post-doctoral researchers, 3 undergraduate diploma projects and 4 MPhil diploma projects. He is currently supervising 8 PhD students.

Finally, Prof Gorgoulis has a special interest in molecular diagnostics in Pathology and is the regional coordinator of the European Quality Assessment Scheme for testing KRAS mutations in colorectal cancer that was established by the European Society of Pathology.

Selected Publications

Myrianthopoulos V, Evangelou K, Vasileiou PVS, Cooks T, Vassilakopoulos TP, Pangalis GA, Kouloukoussa M, Kittas C, Georgakilas AG, Gorgoulis VG. Senescence and senotherapeutics: a new field in cancer therapy. Pharmacol Ther. 2018, pii: S0163-7258(18)30144-X.

Gorgoulis VG, Pefani DE, Pateras IS, Trougakos IP. Integrating the DNA damage and protein stress responses during cancer development and treatment. J Pathol. 2018 [Epub ahead of print]

Galanos P, Pappas G, Polyzos A, Kotsinas A, Svolaki I, Giakoumakis NN, Glytsou C, Pateras IS, Swain U, Souliotis VL, Georgakilas AG, Geacintov N, Scorrano L, Lukas C, Lukas J, Livneh Z, Lygerou Z, Chowdhury D, Sørensen CS, Bartek J, Gorgoulis VG. Mutational signatures reveal the role of RAD52 in p53-independent p21-driven genomic instability. Genome Biol. 2018, 19:37.

Cooks T, Pateras IS, Jenkins LM, Patel KM, Robles AI, Morris J, Forshew T, Appella E, Gorgoulis VG, Harris CC. Mutant p53 cancers reprogram macrophages to tumor supporting macrophages via exosomal miR-1246. Nat Commun. 2018, 9: 771.

Komseli ES, Pateras IS, Krejsgaard T, Stawiski K, Rizou SV, Polyzos A, Roumelioti FM, Chiourea M, Mourkioti I, Paparouna E, Zampetidis CP, Gumeni S, Trougakos IP, Pefani DE, O'Neill E, Gagos S, Eliopoulos AG, Fendler W, Chowdhury D, Bartek J, Gorgoulis VG. A prototypical non-malignant epithelial model to study genome dynamics and concurrently monitor micro-RNAs and proteins in situ during oncogene-induced senescence. BMC Genomics. 2018, 19: 37.

Evangelou K, Lougiakis N, Rizou SV, Kotsinas A, Kletsas D, Muñoz-Espín D, Kastrinakis NG, Pouli N, Marakos P, Townsend P, Serrano M, Bartek J, Gorgoulis VG. Robust, universal biomarker assay to detect senescent cells in biological specimens. Aging Cell. 2017, 16: 192-197.

Herrtwich L, Nanda I, Evangelou K, Nikolova T, Horn V, Sagar, Erny D, Stefanowski J, Rogell L, Klein C, Gharun K, Follo M, Seidl M, Kremer B, Münke N, Senges J, Fliegauf M, Aschman T, Pfeifer D, Sarrazin S, Sieweke MH, Wagner D, Dierks C, Haaf T, Ness T, Zaiss MM, Voll RE,  Deshmukh SD, Prinz M, Goldmann T, Hölscher C, Hauser AE, Lopez-Contreras AJ, Grün D, Gorgoulis V, Diefenbach A, Henneke P, Triantafyllopoulou A. DNA Damage Signaling Instructs Polyploid Macrophage Fate in Granulomas. Cell. 2016, 167: 1264-1280.e18

Sotiriou SK, Kamileri I, Lugli N, Evangelou K, Da-Ré C, Huber F, Padayachy L, Tardy S, Nicati NL, Barriot S, Ochs F, Lukas C, Lukas J, Gorgoulis VG, Scapozza L, Halazonetis TD. Mammalian RAD52 Functions in Break-Induced Replication Repair of Collapsed DNA Replication Forks. Mol Cell. 2016, 64: 1127-1134.

Moreno A, Carrington JT, Albergante L, Al Mamun M, Haagensen EJ, Komseli ES, Gorgoulis VG, Newman TJ, Blow JJ. Unreplicated DNA remaining from unperturbed S phases passes through mitosis for resolution in daughter cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Sep 27;113(39):E5757-64.

Galanos P, Vougas K, Walter D, Polyzos A, Maya-Mendoza A, Haagensen EJ, Kokkalis A, Roumelioti FM, Gagos S, Tzetis M, Canovas B, Igea A, Ahuja AK, Zellweger R, Havaki S, Kanavakis E, Kletsas D, Roninson IB, Garbis SD, Lopes M, Nebreda A, Thanos D, Blow JJ, Townsend P, Sørensen CS, Bartek J, Gorgoulis VG. Chronic p53-independent p21 expression causes genomic instability by deregulating replication licensing. Nat Cell Biol. 2016, 18(7):777-89.

Walter D, Hoffmann S, Komseli ES, Rappsilber J, Gorgoulis V, Sørensen CS. SCF(Cyclin F)-dependent degradation of CDC6 suppresses DNA re-replication. Nat Commun. 2016, 7: 10530.

Petrakis TG, Komseli ES, Papaioannou M, Vougas K, Polyzos A, Myrianthopoulos V, Mikros E, Trougakos IP, Thanos D, Branzei D, Townsend P, Gorgoulis VG. Exploring and exploiting the systemic effects of deregulated replication licensing. Semin Cancer Biol. 2016, 37-38: 3-15.

PubMed:

PubMed Link