- Professor John Matsoukas
Patras Science Park
Patras, Greece
Professor John Matsoukas has over 40 years of experience in research in the field of Organic and Peptide Chemistry, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and in the Chemistry of Natural Products. He has extensive research background in NMR based drug discovery, design and development. Professor Matsoukas has studied Chemistry in the University of Patras. He graduated from the University of New Brunswick in Canada with a MSc. Degree in Chemistry. His dissertation was in the Total Synthesis of Natural Products and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. He carried out his PhD studies in Chemistry in the University of Patras, Greece in the peptide field. He joined the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the group of Professor Graham Moore working on peptide hormones and peptide mimetics. He is the founder, director and head of the successful Graduate Program “Medicinal Chemistry: Drug Discovery, Design and Development” at the University of Patras (1997-2013). The program was evaluated as Centre of Excellence and the first in Greece to be awarded with the title of Euromaster. He is the leader of an International Network for Multiple Sclerosis Research towards clinical investigation of potential drugs discovered in his group. He is Adjunct Professor in the University of Calgary, Canada and in the University of Victoria, Australia, as a result of fruitful collaborations.
He has also undertaken research at the University of Hawaii, USA, University of New Brunswick, University of Calgary, Canada and Austin Research Institute in Australia. He has supervised the dissertation of many PhD and MSc graduate students (more than 60) and of undergraduate students (more than 200). He has published more than 600 articles in Peer Review Journals, Book Chapters and Conference Proceedings. He has over than 60 granted patents and many Awards and Honors for his Research and Scientific Activities. (Complete CV in the link: https://goo.gl/Cync87 Awards and Distinctions in the link: https://goo.gl/ogKflw) Patents in the link: https://goo.gl/cNKJ4s
- Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos
Victoria University
Werribee campus
Building 2 west, 220 Hoppers Lane
Werribee VIC 3030, Australia
Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos has over 25 years of experience in research and training in the area of vaccine formulations development for chronic diseases with translational focus. She has been trained in immunology, cancer and protein crystallography. She has extensive clinical research background, translating research to clinical trials, commercialisation of products, and expertise with consulting pharmaceutical companies as well as being on the board of a number of companies. She has excellent skills on the commercialisation side of drug development and clinical research. Her research has been multidisciplinary in the areas of immunology, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, crystallography, clinical research, epidemiology, drug development and commercialisation, all with chronic diseases focus (namely, cancer, autoimmunity).
Professor Apostolopoulos, completed her PhD at the Austin Research Institute and University of Melbourne, Australia. Her work on cancer vaccine development has been tested in over 25 Phase I, II, III human clinical trials. In the last 20 years, Professor Apostolopoulos has received over 100 awards and honours for her achievements. She has undertaken research at the Scripps Research Institute in USA, at the Austin Research Institute Australia, Burnet Institute Australia, Oxford University UK, Australian National University Australia, and undertook sabbatical research at the Mater Medical Research Institute Australia.
Professor Apostolopoulos has over 350 research papers and books, 285 conference proceedings and is an inventor on 16 patents. She is on the board and is a regular reviewer for a number of journals. Professor’s Apostolopoulos’ major achievements have been in the areas of antigen delivery and vaccine development. She was instrumental in the development of breast and ovarian cancer vaccines, which have been in Phase I, I/II, II, IIb, and pilot phase III human clinical trials. Using similar delivery methods, an immunotherapeutic has been developed against multiple sclerosis (ELMog) which will be tested in human clinical trials in 2017. Currently, she is applying her strong immunology background to better understand chronic diseases (cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, mental health). Professor Apostolopoulos is currently the Immunology in Chronic Diseases Program Leader within the, College of Health and Biomedicine, Victoria University, Australia.
- Dr. Minos-Timotheos Matsoukas
Dr. Matsoukas, (Chemist, MSc, PhD), has been employed both in industry and academia. He has served as CEO of a spin-off drug development company, which has equipped him with strong collaborative skills, group management expertise and strategic decision-making in the drug discovery field. He has always been searching for novel drug targets, and has undertaken a series of projects, from basic academic research (drug design) to industrial preclinical investigation of novel compounds. Academically, he has worked with several groups in Europe on the discovery and identification of drug leads against several drug targets.
- Dr. Theodora Katsila
Dr. Katsila currently serves as a senior research fellow and academic scholar (University of Patras, Greece). Her research focus spans pan-omics strategies coupled to information technologies towards better-informed decision-making, genotype-to-phenotype correlations as well as inter-individual variability in drug response/toxicity and disease phenotypes. Sharing both academic and industrial research experience, Dr. Katsila has an interdisciplinary expertise (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=katsila)