Scientific Personnel

Brief Bio

Kostas Vekrellis received his BSc in Neuroscience from University College London Medical School/Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, with First Class Honours in 1993. He obtained his PhD in Neuroscience in 1997 from the same university working on the regulation and function of the bcl-2 family of genes and their role in neuronal survival in laboratory of Jonathan. Ham and Lee.L Rubin. He then received a research fellowship from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, to work in Dennis Selkoe's laboratory in the Center for Neurologic Diseases. His research focused on the degradation mechanisms of amyloid beta peptide (Αβ), as a cause and effect of Alzheimer's disease. His work identified Insulin Degrading Enzyme (IDE) as a major Αβ-degrading protease in neurons. In 1999 he was offered an Instructor position at Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurology. Since 2002 Dr. Vekrellis is a Researcher in the Division of Basic Neurosceiences at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA). Dr. Vekrellis has extensive experience in cellular and animal models of neurodegeneration, as well as human histopathology, particularly related to Alzheimer's Disease. His lab interests lie in the role of protein oligomerization, misfolding and aggregation, with respect to neurodegenerative disease.

In April 2012, he was appointed a visiting professorship at the  the University of Oxford, Division of Exerimental Medicine, Nuffield department of Medicine.
 

Selected Publications

Vekrellis K, Zhen Y, Qiu W, Walsh D, Hartley D, Chesnau V, Rosner M, Selkoe DJ. Neurons downregulate extracellular levels of Aß via proteolysis by Insulin Degrading Enzyme (2000). J Neuroscience

Bertram L, Blacker D, Mullin K, Keeney D, Jones J, Basu S, Yhu S, McInnis MG,  Go RC, Vekrellis K, Selkoe DJ, Saunders AJ, Tanzi RE. Evidence for genetic linkage of Alzheimer's disease to chromosome 10q.  Science 2000

Vogiatzi T., Xilouri M., Vekrellis K., Stefanis L. (2008) Wild type alpha-synuclein is degraded by chaperone mediated autophagy and macroautophagy in neuronal cells J. Biol. Chem.

Emmanouilidou E., Stefanis L., and Vekrellis K., Cell-produced alpha-synuclein oligomers are targeted to, and impair, the 26S proteasome. (2008)Neurobiology of Aging,

Xilouri M., Vogiatzi T., Vekrellis K., Stefanis L. alpha-synuclein degradation by autophagic pathways: a potential key to Parkinson's disease pathogenesis (2008) Autophagy

Vekrellis K., Xilouri M., Emmanouilidou E., Pavlaki M., Stefanis L., WT- alpha synuclein causes caspase dependent non-apoptotic cell death in neurons. (2009) J Neurochem

Xilouri M, Vogiatzi T, Park D, Vekrellis K, Stefanis L.(2009). Abberant alpha-synuclein confers toxicity to neurons in part through inhibition of chaperone-mediated autophagy. PLoS One

Emmanouilidou E, Melachroinou K, Roumreliotis T, Garbis S, Ntzouni M, Margaritis l, Stefanis L, Vekrellis K. 2010, Cell-produced Alpha-Synuclein Is Secreted in a Calcium-dependent fashion by Exosomes and Impacts Neuronal Survival.  J Neuroscience

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