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Biography |
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Dr Dimitris Kafetzopoulos was born in Athens in 1959. He studied Biology at the University of Thessaloniki and Biochemistry at the Graduate School of the University of Toronto. In 1994, he was awarded the doctorate degree in Applied Biology and Biotechnology from the Dept. of Biology of the University of Crete for his research in enzyme conversion of cell wall polysaccharides. During his postdoctoral research, as an EMBO and HFSPO fellow at the University of Leiden, he studied molecular signaling in plant-microbe interactions. Since 1997, he is a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), leading the research group of Post-Genomic Applications. His research interests include drug development methodologies, molecular classification using DNA microarrays and multianalyte approaches in genotyping, lab-on-chip devices and biosensors. He has participated and coordinated several national and European research projects, including research contracts with the pharmaceutical industry, multidisciplinary research and technology foresight projects. In 2002, for his inventive and innovative research, he has been awarded a prize by the Greek Patent Office. He is also teaching the topics of post-genomic methodologies and management of research results at the University of Crete graduate program.
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Abstract |
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The completion of the human genome project has sparked the development of new powerful technologies that allow the holistic analysis and multilevel molecular profiling of various biological phenomena such as the diversity of complex diseases and the differences in the responsiveness to therapy. These technologies promise to revolutionize the prognosis, diagnosis and prevention of illnesses by the discovery of new disease subclasses and their respective molecular signatures as well as to improve the prediction, accuracy and efficiency of therapy by achieving individualized treatments and finally to promote the healthcare into the era of genetic medicine by the elucidation of the various complex biological mechanisms and defects that underlie health and disease.
But, the key to individualized genetic medicine lies in finding a way to quickly “translate” the discoveries about human genetics made by laboratory scientists in recent years into tools that physicians can use to help make decisions about the way they treat patients. Currently, clinical and post-genomic data (transcriptomics, proteomics, genotyping) are collected from different ethnicities, are generated by different methodologies, protocols, platforms and instrumentation and are maintained in diverse databases by different clinical research organizations. Their process requires the handling of vast genomic information and the development of advanced knowledge-discovery tools that allow the formulation of complex queries and the interrogation of different data sets. Thus, integration of multilevel and heterogeneous information will allow researchers to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying diseases and responses to therapy, to identify new pharmaceutical targets, and to develop numerous specific drugs. Further, global federation of clinico-genomic data, once achieved, is going to have as important impact on clinical research as the genome sequencing projects had on molecular biology.
Recent results and examples from major brain cancer research projects and initiatives are going to be presented in order to highlight latest discoveries, current trends and emerging needs in post-genomic analysis. |
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