Staff Catalogue

CONSTANTINOS DELTAS

DELTAS CONSTANTINOS
22892882
...
PROFESSOR
Medical School
Shiakoleion Educational Health Center (SEKY), biobank.cy Κέντρο Αριστείας για τη Βιοτράπεζα και Βιοϊατρική Έρευνα
University Campus
1982: BSc Pharmacy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
 
1988: PhD Biochemistry, Graduate School of Rutgers University & UMDNJ–Rutgers Medical School joint program in Biochemistry,New Jersey, USA
 
1987–88: Research Associate, Dept of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Phila, PA, USA.
 
1988–90: Instructor in Medicine, Member of Faculty, Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology Research, Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Phila, PA, USA.
 
1990–91: Research Associate, Division of Neurology, Dept of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
 
1991–2004: Senior Scientist, Head of Dept of Molecular Genetics C’, Laboratory of Molecular Nephrology, Diagnostics and Research, The Cyprus Inst. of Neurology & Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus.
 
2002-2020: Professor of Genetics
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Cyprus
Head, Laboratory of Molecular and Medical Genetics
Director, Molecular Medicine Research Center
 
2020-Present: Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics
School of Medicine
Founder and Director, biobank.cy Center of Excellence in Biobanking and Biomedical Research
University of Cyprus
 
 
 
Please click here to download the FULL CV of Professor Constantinos Deltas
 

Dr Constantinos Deltas was elected as the first Professor at the newly created Department of Biological Sciences in 2002 and served as the first Chairman. Along with other colleagues, he had major responsibility in coordinating the preparation of under-graduate and post-graduate programs of study, setting new teaching and research labs and hiring more faculty. For many years, his lab focused on inherited kidney diseases with activities relating to molecular and medical genetics, cell biology and animal model work, pursuing both basic and applied translational directions. Also, he developed multiple molecular diagnostics and his lab serves as a referral center in Cyprus and Greece for several inherited renal conditions.

In 2010 he was funded to set up a new research infrastructure as part of the Smart Specialization Strategy of the Government of Cyprus. He established the Molecular Medicine Research Center (MMRC), as an independent research unit of the University of Cyprus, with three main activities, Biobanking, Research and Diagnostics. He established the first Biobank in Cyprus, with approval by the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee. In 2019 he was funded by the EU with €15mi for establishing a new Research and Innovation Center of Excellence in Biobanking and Biomedical Research, biobank.cy, as an upgraded research infrastructure. The European funding is supplemented with a matching fund by the Government of Cyprus and by another €8mi by the University of Cyprus. The funded project was entitled: Biobanking and the Cyprus Human Genome Project, abbreviated as CY-Biobank (Grant Agreement No 857122).

The new center, with the nick name biobank.cy, has five pillars: The Biobank, the MMRC as the research arm, the diagnostics lab, the education hub and the innovation hub.

The research arm is maintained by the MMRC, which now is hosting several ongoing funded research projects. The biobanking activity was substantially upgraded and broadened in collaboration with Advanced Partners and they aim to high quality standard, to be reflected in ISO-20387 (ISO9001:2015 already established). Prof. Deltas group aspires to prepare a medical research infrastructure that will upgrade the current research ecosystem and create the opportunities for biomedical research and precision medicine of the next generation in Cyprus, to the benefit of the Cypriot and the European citizen.

His research interests are quite broad. Projects in his group include the genetics of inherited kindey conditions, inherited heart conditions and the search for biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. They use mouse models of Alport Syndrome, a severe glomerual kidney disease, for better understanding of molecular and cellular pathomechnisms and for disease treatrment. During the pandemic they biobanked more than a 1000 convalescent patients and they are evaluating the response to the corona virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent achieved milstone is the completion and analysis of 1000 Cypriot genomes at the exome level (coding sequences), the CYPROME. Another 1000 are going to be completed soon as phase-2 of the Cyprus Human Genome Project.

Selected 15 publications of his group are:

  1. Deltas C, Papagregoriou G, Louka SF, Malatras A, Flinter F, Gale DP, Gear S, Gross O, Hoefele J, Lennon R, Miner JH, Renieri A, Savige J, Turner NA (2023) Genetic modifiers of Mendelian monogenic collagen IV nephropathies in humans and mice. Genes (Basel) 2023 Aug 25;14(9):1686. doi: 10.3390/genes14091686.
  2. Fountoglou A, Deltas C, Siomou A, Dounousi E (2023) Genome-wide association studies reconstructing chronic kidney disease. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2023 Dec 20:gfad209. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfad209.
  3. Spiliotaki M, Neophytou CM, Vogazianos P, Stylianou I, Gregoriou G, Constantinou AI, Deltas C, Charalambous H (2022) Dynamic monitoring of PD-L1 and Ki67 in circulating tumor cells of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with pembrolizumab. Molecular Oncology. doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.13317.
  4. Nikolaou S, Deltas C (2022) A comparative presentation of mouse models that recapitulate most features of Alport syndrome. Genes (Basel) 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13101893 2, 13, 1893
  5. Gibson JT, Huang M, Shenelli Croos Dabrera M, Shukla K, Rothe H, Hilbert P, Deltas C, Storey H, Lipska-Ziętkiewicz BS, Chan MMY, Sadeghi-Alavijeh O, Gale DP; Genomics England Research Consortium, Cerkauskaite A, Savige J (2022) Genotype-phenotype correlations for COL4A3-COL4A5 variants resulting in Gly substitutions in Alport syndrome Sci Rep, 2022 Feb 17;12(1):2722. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06525-9.
  6. Savige J, Storey H, Watson E, Hertz JM, Deltas C, Renieri A, Mari F, Hilbert P, Pavlova P, Byers P, Cerkauskaite A, Gregory M, Cerkauskiene R, Ljubanovic DG, Becherucci F, Errichiello C, Massella L, Aiello V, Lennon R, Hopkinson L, Koziell A, Lungu A, Rothe HM, Hoefele J, Zacchia M, Martic TN, Gupta A, van Eerde A, Gear S, Landini S, Palazzo V, Al-Rabadi L, Claes K, Corveleyn A, Van Hoof E, Van Geel M, Williams M, Ashton E, Belge H, Ars E, Bierzynska A, Gangemi C, Lipska-Ziętkiewicz, BS (2021) Consensus statement on standards and guidelines for the molecular diagnostics of Alport syndrome: refining the ACMG criteria. Eur J Hum Genet 29(8):1186-1197. doi: 10.1038/s41431-021-00858-1
  7. Odiatis C, Savva I, Pieri M, Ioannou P, Petrou P, Papagregoriou G, Antoniadou K, Makrides N, Stefanou H, Galešić Ljubanović D, Nikolaou G, Borza D-B, Stylianou K, Gross O, Deltas C (2020) A glycine substitution in the collagenous domain of Col4a3 in mice recapitulates late onset Alport syndrome. Matrix Biology Plus (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mbplus.2020.100053
  8. Dvela-Levitt M, Kost-Alimova M, Emani M, Kohnert E, Thompson R, Sidhom E-H, Ana Rivadeneira, Nareh Sahakian, Roignot J, Papagregoriou G, Montesinos MS, Clark AR, McKinney D, Gutierrez J, Roth M, Ronco L, Elonga E, Carter TA, Gnirke A, Melanson M, Hartland K, Wieder N, Hsu JC-H, Deltas C, Hughey R, Bleyer AJ, Kmoch S, Zivna M, Baresova V, Kota S, Schlondorff J, Heiman M, Alper SL, Wagner F, Weins A, Golub TR, Lander ES, Greka A (2019) Small Molecule Targets TMED9 and Promotes Lysosomal Degradation to Reverse Proteinopathy. Cell 178(3):521-535. e23. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.002
  9. Deltas C (2018) Digenic inheritance and genetic modifiers. Clin Genet 93: 429-438 (Invited Review)
  10. Deltas C, Pierides A, Voskarides K (2013) Molecular genetics of familial hematuric diseases. Nephrol Dial Transplant 28(12):2946-2960. doi:10.1093/ndt/gft253 (Invited Review)
  11. Pieri Μ, Stefanou C, Zaravinos A, Erguler K, Stylianou C, Lapathitis G, Karaiskos C, Savva I, Paraskeva R, Dweep H, Sticht C, Anastasiadou N, Zouvani I, Goumenos D, Felekkis K, Saleem M, Voskarides K, Gretz N, Deltas C (2013) Evidence for activation of the unfolded protein response in collagen IV nephropathies. J Am Soc Nephrol 25(2):260-275. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2012121217.
  12. Athanasiou Y, Voskarides K, Gale DP, Damianou L, Patsias C, Zavros M, Maxwell PH, Cook HT, Demosthenous P, Hadjisavvas A, Kyriacou K, Zouvani I, Pierides A, Deltas C (2011) Familial C3 glomerulopathy associated with CFHR5 mutations: Clinical characteristics of 91 patients in 16 pedigrees. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 6(6):1436-1446.
  13. Gale DP, Goicoechea de Jorge E, Cook T, Martinez-Barricarte R, Hadjisavvas A, McLean AG, Pusey CD, Pierides A, Kyriacou K, Athanasiou Y, Voskarides K, Deltas C, Palmer A, Frémeaux-Bacchi V, de Cordoba SR, Maxwell PH, Pickering MC (2010) Complement Factor H-Related protein 5 (CFHR5) Nephropathy: an endemic cause of renal disease in Cyprus. The Lancet 376(9743):794-801. Epub 2010 Aug 25. *A special invited Comment by S Ananth Karumanchi and Ravi Thadhani was published in the same issue commenting on the results.
  14. Voskarides K, Damianou L, Neocleous V, Zouvani I, Christodoulidou S, Hadjiconstantinou V, Ioannou K, Athanasiou Y, Patsias C, Alexopoulos E, Pierides A, Kyriacou K, Deltas C (2007) COL4A3/COL4A4 mutations producing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and renal failure in thin basement membrane nephropathy. J Am Soc Nephrol 18(11):3004-3016. *Featured in the Highlights of this issue; a special invited Editorial by CE Kashtan was published in the same issue commenting on the results. Also, this paper was included in the list of papers recommended for reading, by the Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation Journal, issue of November 2007.
  15. Mochizuki T, Wu G, Hayashi T, Xenophontos S, Veldhuisen B, Saris JJ, Reynolds D, Cai Y, Gabow P, Pierides A, Kimberling W, Breuning M, Deltas C, Peters D, Somlo S (1996) PKD2, a Gene for Polycystic Kidney Disease that Encodes an Integral Membrane Protein. Science 272:1339-1342