CCRI’s first international research team is led by Prof George Vassiliou from the Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, UK. It will deliver research in the Haematological Malignancies focus area under the Translational Cancer Research direction. The team started working in March 2021 and will receive €1,200,000 in funding from CCRI to carry out its work. The aim of establishing the ITL Haematology Group is to facilitate knowledge transfer and bridge collaboration between CCRI and the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. The group consists of the deputy group leader, a postdoctoral researcher and two research assistants
George Vassiliou is Professor of Haematological Medicine at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK Senior Fellow and Consultant Haematologist at Cambridge University Hospitals. He studied Medicine at the Royal London Hospital and trained as a Haematologist in London and Cambridge. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2005 and went on to investigate the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukaemia as a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist in Allan Bradley’s lab at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. He became a Wellcome Senior Fellow and a member of faculty at the Sanger Institute in 2011 and moved to the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute in 2019.
Blood stem cells live in the bone marrow and are responsible for the production of the cells of the blood and the immune system. Like all cells, blood stem cells accumulate random DNA mutations with time in every one of us. Unfortunately, in some people these changes affect genes that make the stem cells grow uncontrollably leading to the development of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), an aggressive cancer that kills more than 7 out of 10 sufferers. Our group investigates many aspects of AML from how it develops, how we can identify people at risk and how gene mutations change AML cells to make them grow abnormally. Importantly, we have also developed approaches to identify the genetic “weaknesses” of AML in order to develop new treatments against this and related cancers.
Ioannis Dimitriou studied Sciences (with Honours in Biology) at the National University of Athens and obtained his PhD in Immunology in 2001 from the Department of Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, National University of Athens. He did his Postdoctoral training in the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Crete, Greece (2001), in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, at Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA (2002-2005) and he was a Research Fellow in the Division of Stem Cell and Developmental Biology (2006-2016), Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, Canada. He was Research Associate II in Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada and Assistant Professor/Teaching Stream in the Department of Immunology, University of Toronto till December 2021, when he was recruited to lead the establishment of the International Laboratory of Haematology at CCRI, under the supervision of Professor George Vassiliou. His research interests lay on the fields of viral and cancer Immunology, Biochemistry, Molecular Genetics and Cancer Biology.
Georgia Charalambous earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry in 2018 and a Master of Science in 2021 from the Free University of Berlin. Her bachelor’s thesis was completed at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, where sheI focused on Macromolecular Structure and Interaction in AG Heinemann. For her master’s thesis, she interned at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in the Experimental Neuroimmunology group under Dr. rer. nat. Sarah-Christin Staroßom, working on single-cell sequencing. In 2022, she joined the ITL group at CCRI, focusing on CRISPR-Cas9 genome-wide screens in myelogenous leukemia cell lines to explore potential vulnerabilities and identify new therapeutic targets.
The Vassiliou Group seeks to understand the cell-autonomous and cell-non-autonomous processes involved in transformation of normal to leukaemic haemopoietic stem cells and to identify genetic vulnerabilities of myeloid malignancies that can be exploited as targets of novel anti-leukaemic therapies.
To achieve these aims the group uses three main approaches:
We are always looking for talented and motivated reseachers and invetrsigators to join our team. If you are passionate about making a difference in the world of cancer research, explore our current openings for postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and research technicians. Learn more about how you can contribute to our mission.
For more information, collaboration inquiries, or to discuss potential research opportunities, please contact us at:
Professor George Vassiliou, @ Cyprus Cancer Research Institute (CCRI)
