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He then worked as a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Texas at Austin (USA) (2006-2009). In 2010, he received a Marie Curie International Reintegration Fellowship to return to Greece and establish his independent research group in his home country. During 2010-2022, he served as Head of the Laboratory of Enzyme and Synthetic Biotechnology and the Institute of Chemical Biology of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (Greece). Since 2022, he is the Director of the Institute for Bio-innovation at BSRC Fleming. Georgios Skretas has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) (2019-2024). He is inventor on four (4) patents/patent applications. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ResQ Biotech, a spin-off company applying biotechnology approaches to advance early-stage drug discovery against diseases caused by protein misfolding.
and carried out his doctoral studies at the National Institute for Medical Research and University College London, funded by a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation. He obtained his PhD, entitled “Studies on the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor”, in 1987. He then joined Mike Waterfield’s group at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (University College London / Middlesex Hospital Branch), where he worked until 1998, while also being a honorary lecturer at UCL. In 1999 he was elected associate investigator at BSRC “Alexander Fleming”. He served as director of the Institute of Molecular Oncology and as head of Fleming’s Scientific Committee. His main research interests have included the structure and function of growth factor receptors, lipid and protein kinases and phosphatases, characterization of modular domains (SH2, SH3, PH) and proteomic approaches in cancer research, contributing more than 130 publications in scientific journals, which have attracted over 10,000 citations. He acts as a referee for various journals and grant awarding bodies and has been involved in extensive collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotech companies. His research group has been funded by competitive EU and national grants, and he is co-inventor in two awarded US patents.
He received a B.Sc. in Biology with a Chemsitry minor from the University of Toledo (Ohio, USA) in 1983 and a PhD in Moleular Genetics from the Ohio State University (1990). He conducted postdoctoral research in Molecular Neurobiology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (1990-1993 New York, USA) and in Behavioral Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine (1993-1997, Houston Texas). He was elected Assistant Professor of Biology at Texas A&M University (1997-2002) and he then moved to the newly established Biomedical Sciences Research Center in Vari Greece to establish and maintain a Molecular Cognitive Neurobiology Research group where he is currently a Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research. The long-term research goal of the Skoulakis laboratory is to define molecular mechanisms employed by neurons to receive and transduce signals essential for acquisition, storage and retrieval of information and how these are altered in cognitive and neurodegenerative diseases. A significant effort focuses on the molecular biology of habituation, an endophenotype linked to psychiatric conditions such as Schizophrenia, Attention Deficit Disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders. His work on olfactory mechanisms has contributed to the emerging field of Quantum Biology.
His lab has pioneered genetic approaches to study the function of cytokine signalling in animal models of human diseases and is renowned for proof of principle preclinical studies that led to the development of anti-TNF therapies for Rheumatoid Arthritis and for advancing knowledge on molecular and cellular mechanisms driving chronic inflammation and autoimmunity (>45.500 citations, h-index 97 Source: Google Scholar). His laboratory is supported by several competitive grants from national and European sources, and has received Advanced Grant awards from the European Research Council (ERC) (2014 & 2022). GK coordinates the National Research Infrastructures Infrafrontier.GR/Phenotypos from BSRC Fleming, and pMedGR from the Medical School, UoA. In 2006 he founded the first CRO-biotech spin-off of BSRC Fleming, Biomedcode Hellas SA. GK is Member of the Biosciences Steering Group of the European Academies Science Advisory Panel (EASAC) since 2014 and Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) since 2000. In 2014, he was awarded the Carol-Nachman Award for Rheumatology. Since 2016, he directs the International and Transinstitutional Graduate Program in “Molecular Biomedicine” at the Medical School, UoA and the BSRC Fleming and teaches as guest lecturer in graduate seminars in many Greek and foreign Universities.
She was recently elected as Deputy Dean of the School of Applied Biology and Biotechnology at AUA and Deputy President of the Biotechnology Department at AUA. Moreover, she is elected member of the Scientific Board of the Institute for Bioinnovation of BSRC “Alexander Fleming”. She obtained her B.Sc. degree in Biology and her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Biology Department of the University of Athens, trained in mouse genetic engineering through the generation and analysis of transgenic mice as models of human diseases.
Her current research interests are focused on pathogenic mechanisms involved in osteoporosis, carcinogenesis and bone metastasis through the development and analysis of transgenic mouse models expressing human RANKL, the major inducer of osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. Following a forward genetics approach her group has also identified novel genetic causes of neurodegenerative diseases, the mitochondrial proteins DNAJC11 and SLC25A46, with critical role in mitochondrial biogenesis and central nervous system pathogenesis.
Dr Douni has a wide teaching experience related with Animal Genetics, including Animal Biotechnology, Genetics, Special Topics of Modern Genetics, Immunology, and Human Genetics. She has actively participated in national and international research grants either as coordinator or co-investigator. She has more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals with over 3000 citations according to Scopus, while she is regular reviewer in several scientific journals. She is member of scientific committees for a variety of conferences including European Calcified Tissue Society, Bone Marrow Adiposity Society, and Hellenic Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dr Douni is co-founder of the International Bone Marrow Adiposity Society and Biomedcode Hellas SA, a spin-off company of BSRC “Alexander Fleming”.
douni@fleming.gr/douni@aua.gr
She then worked as Lecturer in the Department of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Crete and as a Visiting Scientist to the laboratory of Pr. Jonathan King at MIT Boston (USA). At 2006 she received an ENTEP fellowship and started to work as a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the BSRC Alexander Fleming (2006-2016). In 2017, with the support of Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, she established her independent research group in the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research at BSRC Alexander Fleming. Her scientific interests were always centered on diseases of conformation, where a particular soluble innocuous protein transforms and aggregates into an insoluble fibrillar structure and Tau-linked neurodegenerative diseases is the research field to which she is committed.
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