Dr Antonios Konitsiotis

Antonio Konitsiotis is a research associate in the Molecular Medicine Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London.

Antonio graduated in 2005 from the University of London with a first class honours degree in Biology (BScHons). He joined Dr. Birgit Leitinger's lab at Imperial College in 2005 and embarked on a 4-year research Masters (MRes) plus PhD degree in Molecular Medicine funded by the Molecular Medicine Section (then Biomedical Sciences).

His PhD research concentrated on understanding the molecular interactions of the receptor tyrosine kinase Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 (DDR2) with collagen, and identified the first amino acid motif on collagen to which DDR2 binds, as well as identifying amino acids that were critical for binding. The paper reporting this work was chosen as paper of the week by the Journal of Biological Chemistry (2008, 283: 6861-6868). He was awarded his PhD in September 2010.

His current research is focused on pancreatic cancer, and understanding the role of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway in development of the disease. Specifically, he is examining the role of Hedgehog Acyltransferase (Hhat) in pancreatic cancer, an important protein in the post-translational palmitoylation of Hh proteins. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop novel therapies for pancreatic cancer that target Hhat.  This work is funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (www.pcrf.org.uk) and is headed by Professor Tony Magee and Dr. Ed Tate at Imperial College London.

Awards

2011 National Heart and Lung Institute PhD thesis prize. For the thesis titled Analysis of extracellular and intracellular interactions of the collagen receptor DDR2'.