Maria Pantelidou
Associate Professor Maria Pantelidou is the Associate Dean of the School of Health Science at Frederick University and an affiliated Researcher at Frederick Research Center. Dr Pantelidou graduated in 1999 with a BSc in Biochemistry from the Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology Department at Iowa State University (USA). In 2004 she received her PhD from the same Department. During 2004 -2007 she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus on a project involving Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a human neurodegenerative disease. In 2007, Dr Pantelidou joined the School of Health Sciences at the newly founded Frederick University, where she had a vital role in the organization and development of its departments. More specifically, she held the position of acting Head and Undergraduate Programme Coordinator of the Department of Nursing during 2008 – 2011 and in 2012 she participated in the development of the new Department of Pharmacy where she held the position of Head of the Department of Pharmacy between 2017 and 2022. Her research activities focus on the biological evaluation of drugs and plant extracts, as well as targeted drug delivery for cancer therapy. Through her research she has developed international collaborations with universities and research institutions in Greece, Italy, the UK and the USA. Her research was published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and presented in scientific conferences. She was an invited reviewer in international peer-reviewed scientific journals such as «Obesity Research and Clinical Practice», «Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers», «Journal of Health Ethics», «Biomedicines», «International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health», «Biochemical and Genetic Insights in Obesity». Also, she is a guest co-editor of international scientific journals «Molecules» and «Medical Sciences» and an invited reviewer in international competitions of the European Society of Human Genetics. Dr Pantelidou is the coordinator of the Nanomel Project.Maria Rikkou Kalourkoti
Dr. Maria Rikkou-Kalourkoti (HO) holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry (Department of Chemistry, University of Cyprus 2006) and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science (Department of Chemistry, University of Cyprus 2010). Subsequently, she served as post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Cyprus for four years. Dr. Kalourkoti is an affiliated researcher of Frederick Research Center and an Assistant Professor and Vice-Chairperson of the Department of Pharmacy at Frederick University. Her research interests are focused on the organic synthesis of polymeric materials with different architectures such as linear homopolymer and block copolymers, star polymers, micelles, membranes, hyperbranched polymers and polymer networks of well-defined materials employing different preparation methods, such as group transfer polymerization (GTP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT), characterization of the size, morphology and physicochemical properties of polymers via various techniques. She is also interested in the preparation of polymeric systems with the ability for microphase separation, leading to the formation of well-organized nanomorphologies in solution and in the solid state and the evaluation of polymeric materials to act as delivery systems for drugs and biological molecules. Furthermore, she gained experience in polymer and material characterization via various techniques. Over the past few years, Dr Kalourkoti has supervised several MSc and BSc research projects and she has published several manuscripts in peer-reviewed scientific journals and book chapters. She served as a Reviewer in MDPI peer-reviewed journals and RSC Advances, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, while she is currently acting as a Guest Editor in Pharmaceuticals, MDPI (Special Issue "New Advances in Polymeric Micelles for Drug Delivery. Furthermore, she secured funding on a National level via her participation either as a project coordinator or as a participant in research projects.Costas Patrickios
Costas Patrickios is a Professor of the Department of Natural Sciences and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cyprus. Professor Patrickios has earned his B.Sc. (Diploma) in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece in 1988. He later received an M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA in 1990. In 1993 he earned his Ph.D. from MIT, USA. He served as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences at the University of Sussex, UK, between 1994-1996. He then became a Lecturer at the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. In 1998 he joined the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Cyprus. His current research activity is focused on functional, polymer networks prepared by the end-linking of well-defined building blocks. Dr Patrickios has particular interest in amphiphilic polymer co-networks (APCN, an area he has pioneered) combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments, whose constitution leads to aqueous self-assembly within their semi-solid state and under the constraints of the cross-links. The swelling and mechanical behaviour of these materials in water is characterized; their structure is experimentally explored using small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering, and microscopy techniques, and theoretically predicted using phenomenological thermodynamic models and molecular dynamic simulations. More recent work has also resulted in the preparation of double-networked variants in which an APCN first network was interpenetrated using a second hydrophilic network, and leading to materials with enhanced mechanical properties. Most recently, he has developed model APCNs end-linked via dynamic covalent hydrazone bonds, conferring upon these materials the important and timely properties of self-healability, reversibility, recyclability, and injectability, endowing them with a long service-life and suitability for biomedical applications.Andri Koutsoulidou
Dr Andrie Koutsoulidou is an Associate Scientist at the Molecular Genetics, Function and Therapy (MGFT) at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING). Dr Koutsoulidou obtained her BSc degree in Medical Biochemistry form University of Manchester, UK in 2007. In 2008 she obtained her MSc degree in Immunology from King’s College London, UK. In 2012 she obtained her PhD degree in Neuroendocrinology from the University of Bristol, UK. Since 2012 she works at the MGFT Department at the CING. She has great experience in muscle tissue and miRNA research. Her current research interests mainly focus on the extracellular vesicles and their use in gene therapy. Furthermore, she works on the development of clinical biomarkers for muscular dystrophies.Despina Charalambous
Dr Despina Charalambous has graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Cyprus in 2002 and she obtained an MSc in Molecular Medicine at Imperial College London in 2003. In 2012 she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus. The main topic of her PhD dissertation was the study of the structure and function of motor proteins in primary neurons. Her PhD thesis involved experience in mammalian cell culture techniques (including transfections and Flow Cytometry techniques) as well as light, immunofluorescent and confocal microscopy. Since 2013, Dr Charalambous is an affiliated researcher of Frederick Research Center and a Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacy at Frederick University. Dr Charalambous research interests focus on applying genetic, molecular biology and mammalian tissue culture techniques in elucidating the role of several pharmaceutical agents in different human diseases.Panayiotis Theodosis-Nobelos
Theodosis-Nompelos Panagiotis is a lecturer at the Pharmacy Department of Frederick University and an affiliated Researcher of Frederick Researcher Center. He graduated first among his colleagues, in 2011, from the Pharmacy Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , whilst he received his Master Diploma from the same department and successively his PhD with his dissertation based on design, synthesis and evaluation of structures bearing anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidant moieties with potent multitargeting actions. During his studies he has received scholarships from the State Scholarships Foundation of Greece, the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of Greece, the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the AUTH Research Committee. He has worked as executive pharmacist and as a professor for the Youth Institution and Lifelong Learning Foundation. His research is mainly based on agents against atherosclerotic and neurodegenerative disorders and has been published in International Journals of his field. His teaching domain mainly concerns courses relevant to Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics.Elina Kitiri
Dr. Elina Kitiri holds the position of a post-doctoral research fellow at Frederick Research Center since 2021. Dr. Kitiri graduated with a BSc in Chemistry in 2012 from the Chemistry Department of the University of Cyprus. She later received her PhD in Polymer Science from the same department with a dissertation concerning the synthesis and characterization of mechanically robust double networks as well as the study of their various functional properties. During her PhD studies, she received two academic scholarships from the University of Cyprus (2015, 2016) and she also won the first prize of Sabic Innovation Challenge (2013). Her research has been presented in many international scientific conferences and journals with high impact factors. From 2012 to 2016, she worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Cyprus, while from 2018 to 2022 she worked as a visiting lecturer at the Department of Pharmacy of the Frederick University.Melina Christou
Melina Christou is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Molecular Genetics, Function and Therapy (MGFT) of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. She graduated with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University College London in 2012 and then attained her Master’s degree in Clinical Embryology from the University of Oxford, UK. In 2020, she obtained her PhD from the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine of the CING, where she evaluated the efficacy of newly synthesized antisense oligonucleotides for the treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1. She then joined the Neuroscience Department of the CING as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow, where she worked on an AAVrh10-mediated gene replacement therapy for CMT1X demyelinating neuropathy. In 2022, she joined the NANOMEL project. In this project she is responsible for evaluating the efficacy of the drug loaded nanopolymers in melanoma cell lines.Krystallo Christou
Krystallo Christou is a Researcher of Frederick Research Center working on the Nanomel Project. She has a BSc in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from the University of Thessaly (2010), an MSc in Medical Genetics from the University of Cyprus in collaboration with the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (2013). She is currently studying for an MSc degree in Business Intelligence and Data Analytics at University of Limassol (ex.Cyprus International Institute of Management).Currently she is working as a researcher of Frederick Research Center on the project “Development of novel polymeric drug delivery system for melanoma therapy” funded by the Research and Innovation of Cyprus. Prior to this position she has worked as a Laboratory Technologist for the Department of Molecular Diagnosis (2012-2019) and the Department of Research and Development (2019-2022) at NIPD Genetics LTD (now called Medicover Genetics). Her ten-year work experience was exclusively focused in non-invasive prenatal and postnatal diagnosis and research and development of new diagnosis tests. During those years she also participated in side projects which focused on epidemiological studies for the characterization of different strains of SARS-CoV-2, through a collaboration of NIPD Genetics LTD with the University of Cyprus and the Ministry of Health.
Demetris Apostolides
Demetris Apostolides obtained his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Cyprus in 2012, and in the same year he started a PhD at the Department of Chemistry of the same University, under the supervision of Professor Dr. Costas Patrickios. The thesis of his PhD concerned the synthesis and characterization of dynamic polymer materials of high mechanical strength. After the completion of his PhD in 2018, he has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the polymer chemistry laboratory at the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses on the successful end-functionalization of well-defined star or linear polymer compounds of high molecular weight using different organic synthesis reactions, as well as the fabrication and characterization of model dynamic covalent networks cross-linked via acylhydrazone bonds, possessing reversibility properties, like recyclability and self-healing, upon exposure to certain external stimuli, and, also, possessing excellent mechanical properties under compression or tension. Moreover, his research interests include the investigation of the nanophase separation of dynamic covalent amphiphilic polymer co-networks, which are forming hydrophobic nanoscale sized domains of different morphologies in water, with small-angle neutron and / or small-angle X-ray scattering experiments.