7/12/2023
A novel class of compounds exhibiting anticancer and antifibrotic activities were developed by the group of Prof. George Kokotos in the Department of Chemistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. These novel compounds target and are selective inhibitors of class I Histone Deacetylases (HDACs). They have been designed and synthesized exclusively in NKUA and the study of their biological and pharmacological activities were performed in cooperation with the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (Dr P. Politis), the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming” (Dr. V. Aidinis) and the University of Queensland, Australia (Prof. D. Fairlie). The study of the mechanism of action revealed that the new inhibitors not only present potent inhibition of HDACs, but also downregulate the expression of EGFR, which is associated with cancer progression and poor survival. Preclinical studies showed for the first time that such inhibitors may prevent pulmonary fibrosis, contributing to the understanding of the disease and leading to new approaches for the development of novel agents to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The research of George Kokotos group is dedicated to the design and discovery of novel enzyme inhibitors for the treatment of cancer, inflammatory diseases and neurological disorders. The results of the present study have been published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
05/10/23
The high level of the research carried out by the research groups of the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was reflected in the annual global academic performance assessment ranking "World's Top 2% Scientists List", which was published in October 2023. The ranking is based on a study carried out annually by researchers at Stanford University (USA), which ranks scientists based on the citations to their scientific papers, according to the SCOPUS database, the largest database of scientific publications. More details can be found on the website:
https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6
The ranking concerns over 8,000,000 scientists worldwide, based on a series of indicators measuring the impact of their published work, such as the citations received by each scientist with at least 5 publications. Specifically, the published ranking includes those who belong to the top 2% in their scientific area, based on a classification presented in 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields.
The below list includes a total of twelve members of the Academic Staff of the Department of Chemistry, nine active and three retired, whose names, based on the impact of their published work, in order of ranking, are:
Economou Anastasios
Lianidou Evi
Kokotos George (retired)
Vougioukalakis Georgios
Valavanidis Anastasios (retired)
Kokotos Christoforos
Thomaidis Nikolaos
Danopoulos Andreas
Proestos Charalampos
Kokkinos Christos
Mavromoustakos Thomas
Nikolelis Dimitrios (retired)
