Biographical Sketch

Dr Pavlos I. NEOPHYTOU

Year and place of birth: 1967, Nicosia, Cyprus

Education

Institution Degree Year Field of Study
University of Cambridge, U.K. B.A. Honors 1990 Natural Sciences (Biochemistry)
University of Cambridge, U.K. M.A. 1994 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Cambridge, U.K. Ph.D. 1995 Clinical Biochemistry
The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics Postdoctoral Training 1994-97 Molecular Genetics

Research and Professional Experience

1998-now:

Founder and Chairman of the Mendel Center for Biomedical Sciences, Nicosia, Cyprus. Receiver of over 8 competitive research grants funded by: the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (research on human papilloma virus, cancer and diabetes), the American National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Middle East Cancer Consortium (research on breast cancer etc.) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (research on human papilloma virus).
Nov. 1997-now:

Part-time working as director of the clinical laboratory P.N. Molecular Diagnosis offering general diagnostics as well as specialised molecular (DNA) technology.
Oct. 1994-Oct. 1997:

Postdoctoral research fellow at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Carried out research on the molecular genetics of inherited nephropathies. Three mutations and five intragenic polymorphisms have been identified in the PKD1 gene (autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease gene 1).

Oct. 1990-Sept. 1994:

Ph.D., Faculty of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, U.K.

Thesis title: Approaches to the cloning of beta-cell autoantigens

A novel method was developed for the molecular cloning of antigens recognized by T lymphocytes. The method is based on the screening of subtracted insulinoma minus glucagonoma subtracted cDNA expression libraries with T-lymphocyte clones in T-cell proliferation assays. It was successfully applied to clone Imogen 38, a 38 kD antigen recognized by human diabetic T-cell lines and clones.
Monday, 21 May 2001

Fellowships, Honours, Professional Organisations

  1. Fellowship from UNESCO Molecular and Cell Biology Network (MCBN) for educational visit to the laboratory of Dr Papamichael at the Hellenic Anticancer Institute, Athens (Sept.-Oct. 2000).
  2. Fulbright Fellowship, April-May 1997, for educational visit to the B. Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado, Denver; the Keystone Symposium on Tolerance and Autoimmunity; and the A. Einstein College of Medicine, New York (training on gene mapping).
  3. Sponsored by the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) to attend the EASD young scientists course in Uppsala, Sweden (August 1996). First author of the report on the course published in Diabetologia: Neophytou P., Weyer C., Luppi P. and Jorns A. (1997) Report on the third EASD Scientists Training Course. Diabetologia 40, News Section 1-2.
  4. Commonwealth scholarships for studies at the University of Cambridge, U.K. (1987-1990 and 1990-1993). Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society.
  5. Dr Neophytou's CV is reported in publications of selected biographical sketches of international status such as Who is Who in the World.
  6. Inventor of a method for the identification of novel vaccine components. (TEASEL: T-cell epitope analysis using subtracted expression libraries). Patent applications were filed at the British Patent Office.
  7. Twice winner of all-over-Cyprus contest in Mathematics. Represented Cyprus in two International Mathematical Olympiads (1984 and 1985).
  8. Awarded a prize for selection of my abstract as among the 40 best out of 1042 submitted abstracts: Neophytou et al. (1996). Novel Mutation and Polymorphism in the PKD1 Gene of a Polycystic Kidney Disease Family. 33rd Congress of the European Renal Association and the European Dialysis and Transplant Association, 18-21 June, 1996, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
  9. National Representative of Cyprus in the Management Committee of EU-funded COST Action B20 on "Mammary Gland Development, Function and Cancer", years 2001-2005. Vice-chairman of one of the working groups of the action on "genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics".
  10. General Organising Secretary of the Cyprus Biological Society (1996-2006).
  11. Awarded the title of European Professional Biologist (EurProfBiol) by the European Countries Biologists Association (ECBA).
  12. Awarded the title of Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (FIBMS, UK) with Molecular Genetics as main specialty.
  13. Member of the Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF), the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), the Hellenic Association of Medical Geneticists, The British Association of Clinical Biochemists, the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society and the Cyprus Academy of Sciences.

Competitive Research Grants

  1. Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation: ''Discovery of a Vaccine for Diabetes Prevention in Cyprus'', £30.000 (years 1999-2001).
  2. American National Multiple Sclerosis Society: ''Identification of Novel Autoantigens Recognised by T-cells from MS patients'', $25.000 (years 1999-2001).
  3. Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC): ''Changes in Gene Expression Elicited by Activation of the Breast Cancer Associated MUC1/Y Receptor Protein'', $18.000 (years 1999-2001).
  4. Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC): ''Serum levels of the tumour marker MUC1 isoforms for breast cancer diagnosis in Cypriot families and in non-familial patients'', $30.000 (years 2000-2002).
  5. Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation - Program of Empowerment of Young Cypriot Researchers (PENEK): ''Changes in Gene Expression Elicited by Activation of the Breast Cancer Associated MUC1/Y Receptor Protein'' £7.000 (years 2000-2001).
  6. Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC): ''Establishment of DNA and Serum Banks for Jordanian Familial Cancer Patients and Relatives'', $30.000 (years 2001-2003).
  7. Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC): ''Characterization of the mutational spectrum in BRCA genes in individuals at high risk for developing breast and ovarian cancer from Cyprus and Jordan'', $30.000 (years 2001-2003).
  8. United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS): ''Type and frequence of human papilloma virus infection in Cyprus'', $50.000 (years 2002-2003).
  9. United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS): ''Male urogenital cancer and its relationship to HPV infection'', $36.100 (years 2003-2004).
  10. Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation: ''Male urogenital cancer and its relationship to HPV infection'', £75.000 (years 2004-2007).

    11. Hobbies

    1. Captain of the Cambridge University Gymnastics Team (1991-92). Half-blue in Gymnastics (1991).
    2. Dancing (modern, latin, greek and cypriot folk). Since 1996 a member of the Lygeri Dancing Group.

    Publications Listed in Medline with Abstracts

    1. Arden S.D., Roep B.O., Neophytou P.I., Usac E.F., Duinkerken G., de Vries R.R.P. and Hutton J.C. (1996) Imogen 38: A novel 38-kD islet mitochondrial autoantigen recognized by T-cells from a newly-diagnosed type-1 diabetic patient. J. Clin. Invest. 97, 551-561.
    2. Neophytou P.I., Muir E.M. and Hutton J.C. (1996a) A subtractive cloning approach to the identification of mRNAs specifically expressed in pancreatic â-cells. Diabetes 45, 127-133.
    3. Neophytou P.I., Roep B.O., Arden S.D., Muir E.M., Duinkerken G., Kallan A., de Vries R.R.P. and Hutton J.C. (1996b) T-cell epitope analysis using subtracted expression libraries (TEASEL): Application to a 38-kDa autoantigen recognized by T-cells from an insulin-dependent diabetic patient. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 2014-2018.
    4. Neophytou P.I., Ozegbe P., Healey D., Quartey-Papafio R., Cooke A. and Hutton J.C. (1996c) Development of a procedure for the direct cloning of T-cell epitopes using bacterial expression systems. J. Immunol. Meth. 196, 63-72.
    5. Neophytou P., Constantinides R., Lazarou A., Pierides A. and Constantinou Deltas C. (1996d) Detection of a novel nonsense mutation and an intragenic polymorphism in the PKD1 gene of a Cypriot family with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. Hum. Genet. 98, 437-442.
    6. Constantinides R., Xenophontos S., Neophytou P., Nomura S., Pierides A. and Constantinou Deltas C. (1997). New aminoacid polymorphism, Ala/Val. 4058, in exon 45 of the polycystic kidney disease 1 gene: evolution of alleles. Hum. Genet. 99, 644-647.
    7. Stavrou C., Pierides A., Zouvani I., Kyriakou K., Antignac C., Neophytou P., Christodoulou K. and Constantinou Deltas C. (1998) Medullary Cystic Kidney Disease with hyperuricemia and gout in a large Cypriot family. No allelism with Nephronophthisis type I. Am. J. Med. Genet., 77, 149-154.
    8. Wreschner D.H., McGuckin M.A., Williams S.J., Baruch A., Yoeli M., Ziv R., Okun L., Zaretsky J., Smorodinsky N., Keydar I., Neophytou P., Stacey M., Lin H.H., Gordon S. (2002) Generation of ligand-receptor alliances by "SEA" module-mediated cleavage of membrane-associated mucin proteins. Protein Sci., 11, 698-706.
    9. Dovrat S, Figer A, Fidder HH, Neophytou P, Fireman Z, Geva R, Zidan J, Flex D, Meir SB and Friedman E (2005) Mutational analysis of hMsh6 in Israeli HNPCC and HNPCC-like families. Fam Cancer 4, 291-4.
    10. Capelli C, Redhead N, Romano V, Cali F, Lefranc G, Delague V, Megarbane A, Felice AE, Pascali VL, Neophytou PI, Poulli Z, Novelletto A, Malaspina P, Terrenato L, Berebbi A, Fellous M, Thomas MG and Goldstein DB (2006) Population structure in the Mediterranean basin: a Y chromosome perspective. Ann Hum Genet 70, 207-25.
    11. Hansen S, Lo B, Evans K, Neophytou P, Holmskov U and Wright JR (2007) Surfactant Protein D Augments Bacterial Association but Attenuates Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Presentation of Bacterial Antigens. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 36, 94-102.

    Other Publications and Database Entries

    1. Cloned and sequenced (part of) over 20 novel pancreatic beta-cell specific cDNA's. 19 of these have been deposited in the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ DNA databases: accession numbers Z47768, Z47769, Z47770, Z47771, Z47772, Z47773, Z47774, Z47775, Z47776, Z47777, Z47778, Z47779, Z47780, Z47781, Z47782, Z47783, Z47784, Z47785, Z47786.
    2. Cloned and sequenced the MY09-MY11 L1 conserved region of 11 novel human papilloma virus types, subtypes and variants found in Cyprus. These sequences have been deposited in the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ databases. Accession no. for HPV DNA: AJ617544, AJ617545, AJ617546, AJ617547, AJ617548, AJ617549, AJ617550, AJ617551, AJ621382, AJ621383, AJ621384. Accession no. for HPV protein: CAE84962, CAE84963, CAE84964, CAE84965, CAE84966, CAE84967, CAE84968, CAE84969, CAF18536, CAF18537, CAF18538.
    3. Contributed to the following entries in EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ DNA and protein sequence databases: Imogen 38 DNA (Imogen 44; Mouse 28S mitochondrial ribosomal protein S31, accession no. Z46966, NM_020560), Imogen 38 protein (accession no. CAA87087, Q61733), Mouse zinc finger DHHC domain DNA (Zdhhc2, accession no. NM_178395), Mouse zinc finger DHHC domain protein (accession no. NP_848482), Human Polycystin 1 (ADPKD1 protein, accession no. P98161), Human MUC-1 (episialin, breast carcinoma associated mucin, accession no. P15941).
    4. Contributed to two entries in the OMIM database (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man): Polycystic Kidney Disease 1 (PKD1, entry 601313 and Islet Specific Glucose 6-Phosphatase Catalytic Subunit-Related Protein (IGRP, entry 608058).
    5. One chapter in a book.
    6. One publication in the Balcan J. of Medical Genetics.
    7. Co-author of over 50 and presenter of over 20 abstracts at National and International Conferences. Recent presentations were in the fields of: human papilloma virus (HPV DNA) testing, typing and epidemiology in Cyprus, non-invasive prenatal diagnosis in the first trimester of pregnancy, DNA and serum banks for cancer families.