Dr Nikolas Dietis is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical School, University of Cyprus. He teaches basic pharmacology in the MD undergraduate program and pharmacogenomics in the MSc Precision Medicine program. He is the head of the Experimental Pharmacology Laboratory and the Zebrafish Laboratory at UCY. Dr Dietis is a Registered Expert by the European Commission in the field of "Pharmacology" (Reg: EX2022D543045)  and "Science Communication" (Reg: D 306517), an appointed Examiner of the Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation (ID: I.K.Y.K.1.1.04.1/V), a member of the Experts Committee of the Veterinary Services of the Ministry of Agricuture of Cyprus for consultation on drug licence applications for veterinary use, an appointed Independent Evaluator at the Council of Recognition of Higher Qualifications in Cyprus (KYSATS; ID: 7.9.05.14), a certified Research Evaluator of the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation in Greece (Reg: 17609, ID: 68268), a member of the European Commission's multi-stakeholder group European AI Alliance (member ID: 53803), a member of the European Digital Education Hub on AI in Education. and a member of the Higher Education Initiative Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

Dr Dietis graduated from the University of Portsmouth (UK) with a BSc in Pharmacology, from Nottingham Trent University (UK) with a BScHons in Neuroscience & Pharmacology, from the Natural Sciences Research Centre in Nottingham Trent University (UK) with a MRes in Applied Biosciences/Neuropharmacology and from the University of Leicester (UK) with a PhD in Pharmacology. Prior to his appointment at UCY, he worked in the pharmaceutical industry sector for 5 years (Janssen-Cilag, Lavipharm) before joining the University of Tasmania (Australia) as a Lecturer in Pharmacological Sciences.

Dr Dietis has a strong interest in Medical Education and serves as a member of the Technology Enhanced Learning special-interest group at the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME). He received his training in the Foundations of University Learning & Teaching at the University of Tasmania (Australia) in 2013. He holds a program-based certificate in the Principles of Medical Education by the Harvard Medical School (USA), a certificate in Peer-Review of Online Courses in Higher Education by Quality Matters (USA) and a certificate in Instructional Methods in Medical Education by the University of Michigan Medical School (USA).

Dr Dietis received four teaching awards for teaching excellence and innovation in teaching practices, including the international Clinical Teacher 20th Anniversary Award by the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) for the integration of AI in teaching practices. 

At the University of Cyprus, Dr Dietis has served for 6 years as a member of the UCY Centre for Teaching & Learning and he is currently a member of the UCY Quality Assurance Committee. At the UCY Medical School, he is actively involved in the Accreditation process of the School's  undergraduate MD and the postgraduate programs. He is also an active member of the School's Quality Assurance Committee, the Digital Examination Support Team and the Curriculum Mapping Ad Hoc Committee.

In the field of research in teaching & learning, Dr Dietis is focusing on assessment practices and technology-enhanced teaching practices in Medical Education. He has development an assessment-based learning matrix at UCY as a tool for supporting self-paced & self-directed learning for Medical students. He has also developed the UCY Medical School's Teaching-Research Nexus as a course development tool. In addition, his team has recently developed the ‘Drug Index Visual Map’, which is the first open, digital, visual mapping tool for drug classification and was presented at the World Congress of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology in 2023.

Dr Dietis has been trained in Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT by Vandrebilt University (USA) and is interested in the Integration of AI in Teaching & Learning. He is currently serving as a member of the UCY Vice Rector's Ad-Hoc Committee in Artificial Intelligence and has been involved in UCY's activites on AI. Dr Dietis is particularly interested in the use of generative-AI tools, like ChatGPT in teaching and learning. He has led a global survey on the use of generative-AI in teaching & learning in Medicine, supported by ASME and the participation of WFME. 

RESEARCH (BRIEF SUMMARY)

Dr Dietis has been actively engaged in basic & translational research in molecular pharmacology for more than a decade. He has secured funding from national & international competitive grants and has published his research in high-quality international scientific journals. He has presented his work at various national and international conferences and has been an invited speaker at scientific meetings & symposia. Since 2012, he has supervised 18 postgraduate & doctorate students who have been awarded with 6 research excellence awards.

In 2020, Dr Dietis & his collaborators received the Best Paper Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at the GLOBECOM2020 International Conference for their work on “Growing Bio-Nanomachine Networks: Application to Malignant Tumor Evolution and Progression”. In 2026 he is launching the zBRAIN study: the first ever co-clinical trial in Cyprus that integrates newly diagnosed patients (glioblastoma) with patient-derived animal models (zebrafish) for predicting therapeutic outcomes.

For more details, check the Research Interests tab above.

SOCIAL OUTREACH

Dr Dietis is a passionate science communicator for drug science, with a vigorous public outreach profile through a number of newspaper articles, TV and radio interviews, social media and open-to-public talks & presentations, that aim to educate & engage the general public with evidence-based drug science against misinformation. His social outreach is published openly at his YouTube channel. Dr Dietis is particularly publicly-active on Twitter, where he often publishes educational threads on the appropriate use of drugs and vaccines. He is the producer of the DrugTalk podcast, published on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and YouTube. Dr Dietis is also the creator of the Substack newsletter that publishes content around teaching & learning, called Forward Teaching.

For Dr Dietis' Social Media & BioLinks Click Here.