Staff Catalogue

PANTELIS GEORGIADES

PG
22892888
...
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Department of Biological Sciences
FST 02 - Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, 036
University Campus

Dr Pantelis Georgiades is an Associate Professor and head of the ‘Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Lab for Biomedical Research’ in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cyprus. His research interests center on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of early mammalian development and stem cell function.

Dr Georgiades trained in the United Kingdom and Canada. He first attended the University of London [BSc Hons in ‘Molecular Biology’ from 'Queen Mary’ and PhD in ‘Developmental Biology’ from 'UCL’, while receiving scholarships from the ‘Wellcome Trust', 'A.G. Leventis Foundation' and the ‘Gatsby Charitable Foundation']. He then joined the University of Cambridge where he undertook postdoctoral training in the Department of Anatomy with Prof. A.C. Ferguson-Smith and Prof. G.J. Burton, while being a recipient of a 'Wellcome Trust' fellowship. His further training took place in Canada, as a research fellow at the 'Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute' of 'Mount Sinai Hospital' with Prof. J. Rossant. 

He has received several research grant awards from national and international funding agencies including Research Promotion Foundation', the 'University of Cyprus' and the 'Wellcome Trust'. He is an editorial board member of various international scientific journals such as 'Scientific Reports' and has been an evaluator of research grant applications from international funding agencies such as the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the United Kingdom.

Dr Georgiades has published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals including “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)”, “Development”, “Placenta” και “Nature Communications”.

Our research centers on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of mammalian development (embryonic and extraembryonic) using molecular, cellular and embryological techniques on mouse embryos and stem cells. Our discoveries have been published in international scientific journals such as “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)”, “Development”, "Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications", “Placenta” and“Nature Communications”.

Our research is expected to contribute to:

(a) The understanding of the extraembryonic causes of common pregnancy complications such as unexplained miscarriage, intrauterine growth retardation and preeclampsia.

(b) Advancement of Regenerative Medicine. This involves the understanding of how organs form (using placenta formation as a model) and how the embryonic germ layers form (an important prerequisite for organogenesis within the embryo).

We are currently focused on 3 poorly understood, but medically important, research areas: 

(1) Early development of the epiblast (progenitor of the fetus) in vivo and in vitro:  

The emphasis here is on investigating the formation and early differentiation of the three embryonic germ layers (the progenitors of all organs of the newborn) from the epiblast (the undifferentiated progenitor of the newborn). These germ layers are the ectoderm (progenitor of brain/spinal cord and epidermis), mesoderm and endoderm. The experiments here include molecular and cellular investigations of cultured whole embryos (with or without microsurgical tissue ablation), cultured microsurgically isolated epiblast explants, cultured embryo-derived stem cells and in vivo developed embryos (with or without specific gene manipulations).

(2) Organogenesis of the placenta (the major extraembryonic organ) in vivo and in vitro:

We view placenta formation as a model of organogenesis. We focus on early aspects of its formation (patterning within the early trophoblast compartment) and late events during its maturation (e.g. trophoblast invasion and its interactions with maternal tissues). We are investigating this in vivo(using gene knockout embryos and culture of whole embryos or trophoblast explants) and in vitro using trophoblast stem cells (with or without genetic manipulation of these stem cells).

(3) Influences of extraembryonic tissues on embryo development:

Our main aim here is to investigate the ill-defined influences of extraembryonic tissues (mainly the early trophoblast and visceral endoderm) on the patterning of the epiblast before and during gastrulation. To this end, we are employing several experimental approaches including the use of gene knockout embryos and the culture of trophoblast-ablated embryos (using microsurgery).

For more information please visit the "Georgiades lab" website: http://pantelisgeorgiades.wix.com/thegeorgiadeslab 

 

* corresponding author

  • Nikolaou, S., Hadjikypri, X., Ioannou, G., Elia, A. and Georgiades P* (2018). Functionaland phenotypic distinction of the firsttwotrophoblast subdivisions and identification of the border between them during early postimplantation: A prerequisite for understanding early patterning during placentogenesis. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications,496.1 (2018): 64-69
  • Birol, O., Ohyama, T., Edlund, R. K., Drakou, K., Georgiades, P.,& Groves, A. K. (2016). The mouse Foxi3 transcription factor is necessary for the development of posterior placodes. Developmental biology, 409, 139-151.
  • Drakou, K., & Georgiades, P* (2015). A serum-free and defined medium for the culture of mammalian postimplantation embryos. Biochemical and biophysical research communications,468(4), 813-819.
  •  Polydorou C, Georgiades P* (2013). Ets2-dependent trophoblast signallingis required for gastrulation progression after primitive streak initiation. Nature communications, 4, 1658.
  •  Charalambous C, Drakou K, Nicolaou, S, Georgiades P*(2013). Novel spatiotemporal glycome changes in the murine placenta during placentation based on BS‐I lectin binding patterns. Anatοmical Record296, 921-932.
  •  Charalambous F, Elia A, Georgiades P*(2012) Decidual spiral artery remodeling during earlypost-implantation period in mice: Investigation of associations with decidual uNKcells and invasive trophoblast. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.417, 847-852.
  •  Elia A, Charalambous F, Georgiades P*(2011) New phenotypic aspects of the decidual spiral artery wall during early post-implantation mouse pregnancy. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.416, 211-216.
  •  OdiatisC, Georgiades P*(2010) New insights for Ets2 function in trophoblast using lentivirus-mediated gene knockdown in trophoblast stem cells.Placenta31, 630-640. 
  • Georgiades P*, Cox B, Gertsenstein M, Chawengsaksophak K, Rossant J (2007) Trophoblast-specific gene manipulation using lentivirus-based vectors. BioTechniques42, 317-325. 
  •  Georgiades P and Rossant J (2006) Ets2 is necessary introphoblast for normal embryonic anteroposterior axis development. Development 133, 1059-1068. 
  •  Georgiades P* (2004) The possible clinical relevance of mouse placental research. SICC(Invited expert section), 17-12-2004.
  •  Georgiades P*, Ferguson-Smith AC, Burton GJ (2002) Comparative developmental anatomy of murine and human definitive placentae. Placenta23, 3-19. 
  •  Georgiades P, Ogilvy S, Duval H, Licence DR, Charnock-Jones DS, Smith SK, Print CG (2002) VavCre transgenic mice: a tool for mutagenesis in hematopoietic and endothelial lineages. Genesis34, 251-6. 
  •  Georgiades P, Watkins M, Burton GJ, Ferguson-Smith AC (2001) Roles for genomic imprinting and the zygotic genome in placental development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 98, 4522-4527. 
  •  Ferguson-Smith AC, Tevendale M, Georgiades P, Grandjean (2001) Balanced translocations for the analysis of imprinted regions of the mouse genome. Methods in Molecular Biology181, 41-54. 
  •  Georgiades P, Watkins M, Surani MA, Ferguson-Smith AC (2000) Parental origin-specific developmental defects in mice with uniparental disomy for chromosome 12. Development127, 4719-28. 
  •  Takada S, Tevendale M, Baker J, Georgiades P, Campbell E, Freeman T, Johnson MH, Paulsen M, Ferguson-Smith AC (2000) Delta-like and gtl2 are reciprocally expressed, differentially methylated linked imprinted genes on mouse chromosome 12. Current Biology 10, 1135-8.