Scientific Personnel

Brief Bio

I accomplished my graduate (1991) and postgraduate studies (1997) in Department of Biology in University of Patras. In 1997 I joined in the lab of Dr Nick Brown at Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, initially as visiting scientist funded by a Royal Society fellowship (1998), and then as Marie Curie post-doctoral fellow (1999-2000). In 2001, I appointed Wellcome Research Associate. In the summer of 2004 I was recruited in the Center of Basic Research at FBRAA as a faculty member (Investigator -Assistant Professor Level) in the Department of Genetics. My research interests lie on the interface between Cell and Developmental Biology. In particular, I am interested in how actin cytoskeleton modulate cell adhesion during development. My group is taking advantage of the genetic tractable organism Drosophila to apply post-genomic approaches and uncover the function of proteins that are key mediators of cell shape and cell anchorage. Currently we are focusing on the genetic analysis of essential components of the integrin-actin linker complex. Integrins comprise one of the main cell adhesion family of proteins highly conserved during evolution and well established for its importance as molecular targets in various human diseases. In my earlier work I showed that Integrin-Linked Kinase (ILK) is required to link integrins to actin cytoskeleton. In addition, I provided in vivo evidence suggesting that ILK exerts its essential function as an adaptor protein, rather as an active enzyme. Meanwhile my collaborative work on the functional characterization of other integrin-associated proteins has provided novel insight in the conserved molecular machinery that integrin receptors utilize to function during development.

Selected Publications

IPP Complex Reinforces Adhesion by Relaying Tension-Dependent Signals to Inhibit Integrin Turnover.
Vakaloglou KM, Chrysanthis G, Zervas CG.
Cell Rep. 2016 Mar 22;14(11):2668-82. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.02.052. Epub 2016 Mar 10.

Velentzas PD, Velentzas AD, Pantazi AD, Mpakou VE, Zervas CG, Papassideri IS, Stravopodis DJ. (2013). Proteasome, but not autophagy, disruption results in severe eye and wing dysmorphia: a subunit- and regulator-dependent process in Drosophila PLoS One, 8(11):e80530. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080530eCollection 2013.

Chountala M., Vakaloglou K.M., Zervas C.G. (2012). Parvin overexpression uncovers tissue-specific genetic pathways and disrupts F-actin organization to induce apoptosis in the developing epithelia in Drosophila. PLoS ONE, 7(10):e47355. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047355

Vakaloglou K. and Zervas C. (2012). Parvin-ILK: An intimate relationship. BioArchitecture, 2;3, 1-3 (invited commentary article).

Vakaloglou K.M., Chountala M., Zervas C.G. (2012). Functional analysis of parvin and different modes of IPP-complex assembly at integrin sites during Drosophila development.  J. Cell Science, 125 (13);3221-32

^§Zervas C.G., Psarra E., Williams V., Solomon E., Vakaloglou K.M., ^§Brown N.H (2011). A central multifunctional role of integrin-linked kinase at muscle attachment sites. J. Cell Science, 124;1316-27 (^§shared senior authorship).

Grabbe C.*, Zervas C.G*., Hunter T., Brown N.H., Palmer R.H. (2004). Focal Adhesion Kinase is not required for integrin function or viability in Drosophila. Development, 131, 5795-5805. (*co authors).

Torgler CN, Narasimha M, Knox AL, Zervas C.G., Vernon MC, Brown NH. (2004). Tensin stabilizes integrin adhesive contacts in Drosophila. Developmental Cell, 6(3):357-69.

Zervas C.G., Brown NH. (2002). Integrin adhesion: when is a kinase a kinase? Current Biology, 14; 12(10):R350-1.

Zervas C. G., Gregory S. L., Brown N. H. (2001). Drosophila Integrin Linked Kinase is required at sites of integrin adhesion to link the cytoskeleton to the plasma membrane. J. Cell Biology 5; 152(5):1007-18.

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