Joseph Papamatheakis

Since 2014, the group has shifted research activities to focus on cancer biology. Recent advances in Molecular Biology had a dramatic impact in understanding the mechanisms that drive oncogenic pathways. In spite of that, cancer remains a major biomedical problem because of dynamic Genetic and Epigenetic heterogeneity that is the main cause of therapy resistance, disease recurrence and death. Our goals are to understand the genetic and epigenetic networks that operate and drive cancer progression and aggression. The main current directions are: 1. PML gene targets and interacting proteins. 2. Transcriptomics of cell polarity/fate protein action. 3. Tumor clonal evolution, testing of new epigenetic compounds and new gene targets.

To this ends we are using in vivo imaging, genomics, established cell lines, patient derived Glioblastoma xenografts (PDX), ectopic gene expression and genetic barcoding to study the self-renewal properties and gene and drug responses in relation to clonal and epigenetic evolution of tumor population in vivo and in vitro. These studies will contribute to the elucidation of critical oncogenic mechanisms, the development of more reliable preclinical models, the identification of predictive biomarkers and personalized therapies.